Love, War, and Pumpkin Juice
by junebugbug96
Summary: Allie Lancaster is the first Hogwarts student to get her letter late. Starting in third year has its difficulties, but being friends with Rose Weasley and her family sure helps! Follow Allie through her adventures in her first/third year. NextGen
1. Chapter 1

**A/n: Love War and Pumpkin Juice has been completely re-vamped! After looking back at previous chapters and seeing how, for lack of a better term, crappy they were, I sat down and did some editing with this as the result! Hope you enjoy ;)**

Chapter 1

"Platform 9 and three quarters… wait, what?" I looked nervously at my parents. "What's that supposed to mean?" It was pointless asking, of course. My parents were Muggles, as new to the magical world as I was. They shrugged in unison and looked confused, like they still couldn't believe I'd even been accepted into Hogwarts. I tightly clutched the handle of the trolley that carried my two trunks and owl cage. My stupid brother was probably off chatting up some girl; if I missed the train entirely I was going to blame him.

Suddenly, I spotted a boy who looked about my age wheeling a cart that contained several articles of luggage and…. an owl. Hopefully he's a wizard, I thought, or he'll think I'm just a total nutcase. "Um, excuse me," I said as I approached him, my voice sounding high-pitched and strange. "Can you tell me how to get to platform 9 and ¾?" He turned towards me and seemed to look me over with warm brown eyes.

"You're not a first year, are you?" I blushed; I had known that this question was coming.

"Um, well I'm thirteen, but I didn't get my letter until this year. I'm Muggle-born, see, and my brother got into another Wizarding school, Windward, four years ago," I said, looking down. "We thought I wasn't magic enough or something, but then I just randomly got my letter this year. He decided to transfer here so that we could be at the same school. I don't know where he is right now, though."

"Oh," said the boy, looking surprised and a little sympathetic. "So what year will you be?"

"Third year, I think. I've been working really hard over the summer to catch up."

The boy grinned. "Nice," he said. "I'm James, by the way. Fourth year. Come on, I'll show you how to get to the platform."

I followed him quickly, and as I passed I whispered, "Bye Mum, bye Dad. I'll send you an owl as soon as I can!" James and I walked until we reached the barrier between platforms 9 and 10.

"Okay," said James. "Now, just do what I do. But be careful, 'cause you don't want to scare the Muggles." He then proceeded to walk straight at the barrier. I was about to stop him from running into it, but then he simply melted into the wall. Okay, I thought. Just walk through the wall. I backed up, trying not to upset my trolley, and started towards the barrier, every nerve in my body screaming at me to NOT run straight at a brick wall. Next thing I knew, I was on the other side and a bright scarlet train labeled Hogwarts Express was sitting in front of me. James, however, was nowhere to be found. After several minutes of meticulous searching and awkward stares, I decided that he must have met up with some of his friends or something. So I picked up my trunks and my cage and followed the crowd onto the train.

Finding a compartment, however, was much harder. In the first few cars, they were all full of friends laughing and talking, making me feel even more distinctly out of place. I didn't come across one with any free seats until the fourth car.

A girl with shiny, startlingly red curls sat across from a younger boy and girl. Both had red hair as well, but where the boy's features mirrored the older girl's enough for me to think them siblings, the younger girl's face resembled neither of the others'. She was nibbling on what appeared to be jelly beans. I pulled the door open.

"Hi, do you mind if I sit here? All the other compartments are full."

"Sure," said the older girl, smiling and patting the seat next to her. "I'm Rose, this is my brother, Hugo, and that's our cousin Lily. What's your name?"

I finished putting my trunks in the overhead storage and said, "I'm Allie."

"Nice to meet you, Allie," said Rose. "What year are you?"

"Third. What about you?"

"I'm a third year too; Lily and Hugo are first years." Lily looked up and smiled. "What house are you in anyway? I don't think I've seen you around before."

"Well, I don't really know," I said uncomfortably. I then repeated what I had said to James.

"Huh," said Hugo. "I've never heard of a letter coming late before." Rose elbowed him. "Ow! But, you know, I'm sure it's, er, happened before. I really want to be Gryffindor," he said, obviously trying to change the subject. "You know all the houses, right?"

"Yeah," I said, glad that I had read _Hogwarts, a History_ over the summer. "Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. What houses are you all in?"

Before anyone could respond, the train started moving with a jerk and I stumbled. Rose caught my elbow and patted the seat next to her. I sat, shooting her a grateful smile. Looking around, I saw that the compartment was cramped but cozy; two benches opposite each other were covered by faded, plump red cushions. The window was large, giving a great view of the scenery outside as it began to pick up speed.

Just then a familiar face poked through the compartment door and said, "Hey Sis, how's your ride been?"

"James? You're Rose's brother?" James looked towards me, noticing me for the first time.

"Oh, hey! Nah, I'm not Rose's brother, thank goodness. Ow!" Here Rose had slapped his arm. "I mean, unfortunately…" Lily glared at him. "No, I don't mean… ugh! I'm Lily's sister- I mean brother!" By this point all four of us were laughing. James rolled his eyes. "_Anyway_, I never got your name," he said, looking at me.

"Allie Lancaster."

"Sorry I ditched you back there, Allie. Hedwig got loose and I had to go catch her." Seeing my confused expression, he clarified, "My owl."

"He named it after his dad's old one," added Rose, smirking. "James is such a softie underneath." It was his turn to glare at her. She simply smiled wider.

"Oh," I said, deciding to try to circumvent another argument. "I haven't named mine yet. Do any of you have any ideas?"

"Is it a he or a she?" asked Hugo.

"He's a boy."

"What about Quicksilver?" said Lily. It was the first time I'd heard her speak, and she had a sweet but intelligent voice.

"What?" said James.

"Quicksilver," repeated Lily. "I learned about it in Muggle school; it's a type of metal that's liquid at room temperature and it's really poisonous. But it's also very pretty. Muggles use it to tell the temperature."

"Merlin, Lily, why would Allie want to name her owl after a poisonous metal that tells temperature?" asked James, looking at his sister like she was crazy.

"Well, it's pretty," said Lily defensively, crossing her arms.

"I like it," I said, smiling encouragingly at her. "Lovely but dangerous. Congratulations, little owl. You have just been christened Quicksilver." My owl, who had been asleep in his cage, opened one eye and looked at the roomful of people suspiciously. Then he ruffled his feathers and went right back to sleep.

"Oh yes," said Hugo, grinning broadly. "He's dangerous, all right."

"Don't make fun of my owl!" I said indignantly. Hugo just stuck out his tongue.

"Right, well, I'll just leave you lot here," said James. "I have to go find Louis and Fred; I promised them we'd play a- er, meet up on the train. I'll see you at the feast."

The rest of the afternoon passed in amicable chatter, with Hugo, Rose, and Lily filling me in on basic wizard culture. However, it wasn't until at least halfway through the ride that I realized that my new friends were famous.

"What do you mean your dad's Harry Potter?" I screeched when Lily mentioned something about some crazy reporter stalking him.

"Er, yeah," she said, blushing. "Did I not mention that?"

"No, not really!" I said, stunned.

"C'mon, Allie. Just breathe," teased Rose, demonstrating. "In and out."

"Oh, shut up," I grumbled, rolling my eyes. "You can't expect me to just not react when I realize I've been sitting with the daughter of the most famous person in the Wizarding world!"

Rose laughed. "Well you're doing better than some people. You haven't begged for an autograph yet."

"People _do_ that?"

"Yeah, all the time! Me and Lily and my mum went shopping one time at a Muggle mall, and there was a magical family there and the little boy asked Lily and Mum for their autographs…"

I cut her off. "Wait. Who's _your_ mum?"

"Erm, Hermione Granger," she said quickly.

I goggled. "And your dad's Ronald Weasley?" She nodded again, giggling a little at my expression.

"Did I mention my dad's teaching Defense against the Dark Arts this year?" Lily added.

"No, you didn't!" I squeaked. "I thought he was an Auror?"

"Yeah, he is," said Hugo, joining the conversation. "But McGonagall couldn't find anyone to fill in for Defense while the old professor was on… er… what's it called again?"

"Sabbatical," said Rose patiently.

"Yeah, that. So she was so desperate she called Uncle Harry, and of course he wouldn't decline."

"Oh," I said weakly.

"No more big news, or she'll faint," said Rose, grinning.

Before I could retort, there was a loud scream in the corridor, the compartment door flew open, and James ran in, chased by another boy who had similar jet-black hair.

"Stop! It was just a trick, Al!" said James, panting.

The boy glared at James. "You just exploded a bloody sandwich in Emily's face! You could've blinded her or hurt her really badly!

"But I didn't!" said James. The boy just looked annoyed. "Whatever, Al. We'll talk about it later." Al did not look like he wanted to talk about it; more like he wanted to pummel James. "Hey, are you lot going to go get changed or are you riding the Hogwarts Express home?" He chuckled a little at his own joke.

We all rolled our eyes but grabbed our robes and went to the bathroom to change. When we came back, James and the boy were eating Lily's candy.

"HEY!" yelled Lily, snatching her candy away.

"Sorry," said James, not sounding sorry at all with his mouth full of those odd jelly beans. "Oh, Allie, I forgot. This is my brother Albus. He's a third year too. Al, this is Allie. Oh Merlin, we're gonna have a hard time telling you two apart…"

"Guys!" interrupted Rose. "We're here. You can figure the name thing out later." We all followed her out of the compartment and up to the front of the train. As I stepped off, I gasped in awe. An enormous castle complete with turrets and battlements loomed before me, majestic and stately with little squares of warm yellow light where the windows were. Even in the dark, Hogwarts was the most beautiful place I had ever seen.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Firs' years, over her'! Firs' years! C'mon now, don' be shy! Firs' years!"

"Who's that?" I whispered to Rose, referring to the gigantic man who was yelling for the first years by the lake.

"Oh, that's just Hagrid," said Rose. "Don't let his…well, appearance scare you; he's really nice. I'll take you to visit him this weekend if you want."

"Alright," I said apprehensively. "Do I go with him?"

"I s'pose so. I mean, you have to be Sorted."

So I followed the crowd of first years walking over to Hagrid. If I had thought that he was large from a distance, it was nothing compared to now. He was at least three feet taller than me, and sported a thick, bushy brown beard that was streaked with grey. The first years looked even more nervous than me.

"We got a big 'un this year, eh?" boomed Hagrid.

I jumped and then tilted my head all the way back to reply. "Oh. Um. Well, sir, you see, I'm Allison Lancaster, sir, and I got my letter late, but I'm a third year. I just, you know, have to be Sorted. Sir."

"Oh, so you're Allie Lancaster? Pleasure teh meet ya. I'm Rubeus Hagrid, gamekeeper. But y' can call me Hagrid." He stuck out his enormous hand.

I cautiously shook it. "Nice to meet you, Hagrid."

Hagrid turned and saw that the first years were all there. "C'mon now, into th' boats! No more'n four t' a boat, 'nless y' care t' take a swim!" I found an empty boat and slipped into it. I had just settled myself when a boy jumped in the other side.

"Will!" I said, not expecting to see my brother.

"Hey Al," he said, smiling. "Pretty conspicuous, aren't we?"

"Yeah," I sighed.

"Hey," said Will gently. "Don't worry about it. We'll just get Sorted and everything will be fine. No one's gonna remember that we were in the first year line." I nodded, glad that I wasn't alone.

Some people have brothers who pick on them mercilessly or could care less about them. I'm not one of those people. Will to me had always been a friend, albeit one with a protective streak as wide as the Thames River and a love for teasing me the rest of the time.

"So what house are you hoping for? I want to be in Gryffindor," said Will, obviously trying to change the subject.

"Not sure," I said. "Anything but Slytherin, really. Well, I would prefer not to be Hufflepuff either, from what I've hears, so I guess Ravenclaw or Gryffindor." I spotted Lily and Hugo and motioned for them to join us in the boat.

"Thanks," said Lily and Hugo in unison.

"No problem," I said. "Hugo, Lily, this is my brother William. Will, this is Lily Potter and this Hugo Weasley." They smiled politely.

Will's eyes widened in shock, his mouth dropping into a perfect O, but before he could say anything, Hagrid yelled, "Everyone in? Alrigh', let's go!" and the boats started to row across the lake of their own accord.

Less than a minute into the ride, there was a collective sound of surprise from the first years, and then a chorus of screams as a gargantuan tentacle slithered out from beneath the surface of the lake.

"_Awesome_!" breathed Hugo. "Dad told me all about the Giant Squid!" Lily squeezed her eyes shut and folded her arms tightly to her chest.

"Tell me when it's gone," she muttered.

"C'mon Lils, it's so _cool_!"

"So cool it could just pick you up and drag you down to its lair at the bottom of the lake and then eat you for its appetizer."

"Whatever," said Hugo, trailing a hand into the water as the tentacle slowly slid back down into the depths. Pulling his hand out, he flicked Lily and me with drops of icy water.

Lily shrieked, and I gasped. "What the heck, Hugo? Do you want me to push you out of this boat?" she yelled.

"No, not really," said Hugo, smirking. Will just watched all this with an amused expression.

"Then don't do that!" she harrumphed and purposefully turned her head towards the growing sight of Hogwarts.

Just then, there was a large splash and more screaming.

"Did someone just…" I asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

"There's always one," I heard Hagrid grumble.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

After Hagrid had retrieved the boy who had fallen out and draped his big cloak around him, we followed him up a steep path to the main entrance of Hogwarts. As we reached the top of the steps, the massive oak doors swung open and a stern looking lady with crimson robes and prim, grey hair swept into a tight bun swept out holding a long piece of parchment.

"Good ev'nin', Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Good evening, Hagrid. Welcome, first years, to Hogwarts." As she spoke, she ushered us into the castle. "Now, the start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but first you all must be sorted into your Houses. This is a very important ceremony because while you are here, your House will be like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your House, sleep in your House dormitory, and spend free time in your House Common Room.

"The four Houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your House points, and any rule-breaking will lose House points. At the end of the year, the House Cup will be awarded to whichever House has the most points.

"Now, in a few minutes, the Sorting Ceremony will start. Follow me, please-" At this, she led us into a chamber off the hall, "- and wait here until I come back for you." She walked briskly into the room that I assumed was the Great Hall.

As soon as the doors had swung shut behind Professor McGonagall, nervous chatter filled the room.

A scrawny girl standing next to me said, "So what House do you want to be in?" This startled me out of my frightened daze.

"Sorry, run that past me again?" The girl repeated her question. "Oh. Well, I suppose either Ravenclaw or Gryffindor would be good. I don't think I'm smart enough to be in Ravenclaw, though."

"I really want to be in Gryffindor," gushed the girl. "I mean, my mum's a Muggle, but my dad's a wizard, and he was in Gryffindor while she was at Hogwarts. I've heard that they do it a lot by family. I'm Claire Creevey, by the way. Gosh, I wonder how they're going to sort us! My dad wouldn't tell me, said it would be a surprise. Say, what's your name?"

A little bit overwhelmed, I took a few moments to reply. "Er, Allie Lancaster."

"Nice to meet you, Allie. Wow, you're really tall! I've always wished I was tall, but Dad-" Just then, Professor McGonagall returned.

"We are ready for you. Follow me, now." The first years, Will, and I all trailed after her into the Great Hall. As I looked up, I gasped and heard others doing the same around me. The ceiling was an exact replica of the clear night sky that hung above it, constellations twinkling and the moon glowing brightly.

"It's enchanted," whispered Will. Now that he mentioned it, I vaguely remembered reading something about it in _Hogwarts, a History_. I turned my gaze forward and found that while I had been staring at the ceiling, we had walked all the way to the front of the room and were standing in front of the teachers' table. The only teacher I recognized was Professor Potter because he was the mirror image of Albus plus twenty five years. The seat in the middle of the table was empty; I supposed that it was Professor McGonagall's.

"Now, first years, when I call your name, please step forward and place the Sorting Hat on your head." She pointed at an extremely old, extremely worn-out wizard hat that sat on a stool in front of the teachers' table. I hadn't noticed it before. She unrolled a long sheet of parchment and cleared her throat. "Acres, Eleanor!" A short, freckled girl with blonde hair stumbled nervously up to the stool. She sat down and put the hat on.

A few moments later, the hat shouted, "HUFFLEPUFF!" The Hufflepuffs clapped and yelled for her.

"Andrew, Jeremiah!"

"GRYFFINDOR!" There was a loud cheer from the Gryffindor table.

A few minutes later, the enthusiastic "Creevey, Claire!" was made a Gryffindor.

The names flew by. All too soon, "Lancaster, Allison!" was called. On shaking legs, I walked up to the stool, sat down, and carefully placed the hat on my head, my heart fluttering.

"Hmmmm…" I heard.

"Are you the hat?" I thought.

"Why yes, indeed," said the hat in my mind, sounding quite pleased. "Now, where shall I put you? I see you are very bright; you have caught up to a third year level with no previous magical training…. And you figured out who was talking to you in a heartbeat! But you are also very kind, my, my, quite brave, and you would do anything for a friend…. You _are_ a tricky one!"

"I'm not brave," I thought-protested. "That's my brother." A memory surfaced in my mind of Will yelling at a boy who had teased me in second grade as I cried, Will climbing the tallest trees while I stayed firmly planted on the ground, Will ignoring people's stares when he looked about four years older than everyone else being Sorted.

"You're wrong," said the hat. "Your brother seems to be brave, yes, but you are different… there are many types of bravery, you know."

"Well, I'm not," I thought stubbornly.

"As you say," said the hat amusedly. "Well, I am having a hard time with you! Where would you like to be?"

"Anything but Slytherin," I thought. "And preferably not Hufflepuff either."

"Oh, I never would have put you in Slytherin," said that hat. "No, not you… but Hufflepuff… are you sure? You would do well among the badgers. You wouldn't be a bad Ravenclaw, either."

"I- I don't know," I admitted. "I just want to be with my brother and my friends."

The hat chuckled. "You remind me of a certain famous wizard who is sitting right in this very room! Ah, well, better be GRYFFINDOR!" The hat shouted the last word, and the Gryffindor table cheered. I spotted James and Rose grinning and motioning for me to sit with them. So I yanked the hat off, bounded over to the Gryffindor table, and sat between Rose and James, elated.

"Lancaster, William!" The hat sat on Will's head for only one moment before it screamed, "GRYFFINDOR!" Will sat down across from me and shook James's hand.

"Will Lancaster," he said. "You must be James Potter."

"Yup," said James with a lazy grin. "Welcome to Gryffindor. This is my cousin, Rose Weasley."

"Nice to meet you," said Will, turning to Rose. "What year are you?"

"Third," said Rose. "You?"

"Fourth. Hey, look! Isn't that your sister, James?" And Lily had indeed gone up to the hat and gingerly placed it on her head.

After a few long moments, the hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" The Gryffindor table screamed loud enough to make a few of the teachers cover their ears.

A few names later, "Weasley, Hugo!" was called. Hugo looked like he might faint. With much effort, he walked up to the stool, put the hat on, and waited. And waited. And waited some more.

Finally, the hat yelled, "GRYFFINDOR!" Hugo, however, did not look relieved. Instead, he looked rather worried as he sat down across from James.

"What's wrong, Hugo?" whispered Rose. But before Hugo could say anything, the Slytherin table cheered loudly for Yates, Grace. Then, Professor McGonagall stood up in front of her chair and motioned for silence.

"Welcome, students, to a new year at Hogwarts! I am sure that we will all strive to make this our best year yet. First years, please note that the Dark Forest is strictly off limits. Returning students, you know the rules. Also, an updated list of forbidden items has been posted on our caretaker, Argus Filch's door. Remember, all items from the store called Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes will be confiscated if found! Now, everyone enjoy your feast, and I will see you in classes." As she finished, she pulled out her wand, gave a little flick, and sat down. All of a sudden, every plate in the hall was filled with food, the tables groaning under the weight of so many good things. As I looked at my plate, I saw that it had been filled with my favorite dishes: mashed potatoes, shepherd's pie, pot roast, and even pumpkin pie. Without further hesitation, I dug in.

"Hey, Allie," said Rose, poking me. I looked up. "This is my cousin, Roxanne. She's in our dorm, too." She was pointing at a girl sitting diagonally from me who looked to be at least half black; she had sleek brown hair and smiling hazel eyes.

"Hi," I said.

"Hey." She smiled warmly.

"Well, that's not awkward," commented Will.

I glared, and he pretended not to notice. To Roxanne I said, "Sorry. That's my brother Will."

"It's alright," said Roxanne. "I have a brother, too. Y'see that guy down there, two down from James?" I nodded. "That's Fred. Drives me up the wall, he does." I noticed she fiddled with her hands a lot as she talked.

"I know what you mean," I said, reaching for some steak just as it disappeared. "Hey! What happened?"

"Dessert time," said Rose, pointing at the plate. As I looked, I saw that it now carried a three-layer chocolate cake.

"Yes!" James snatched the plate and helped himself to two huge slices.

Rose slapped his arm. "Pig." She grabbed the plate back and took a piece for herself, then handed it to me.

"Thanks." I took a piece and handed the plate to Roxanne, who took one and put it back, empty.

"What?" protested Will. "I wanted a piece!"

"No worries, Will," I said sweetly. "You could do without the extra calories anyway."

Before he could snap at me, McGonagall stood up and began to speak again.

"Attention, please!" The chatter of the Great Hall immediately subsided. "Thank you. When I dismiss you, you will all retire to your dormitories. Prefects and Heads, please show the first years in your houses to their dormitories. Remember that curfew is ten o' clock sharp; there will be NO wandering of the corridors after that time. Thank you, and good night, students. I'm sure we are going to have an excellent year. You are dismissed."

A wave of noise suddenly rose as everyone began to talk and head to their dorms. "Er, Rose?" I said.

"Yeah, I show you where our dorm is," she said.

"Thanks," I said gratefully.

"Don't mention it. C'mon." Rose, Roxanne and I rose together, and after a quick goodnight to Will from me, we left the hall. They led me through what seemed to be an endless maze of stone corridors and peculiar paintings. Finally, after a long climb up about five sets of stairs, we reached a portrait of a plump lady wearing an old-fashioned, pale pink dress.

"Grindylow bile," said Rose. Before I could question her sanity, the portrait swung open, showing me my first view of the Gryffindor common room.

To the left was a large fireplace with merry flames crackling in it. Just in front of the fire were several overstuffed, cozy looking armchairs with a red and gold striped pattern. A huge, plush carpet filled about half of the room; the other half was made of smooth, worn wood floors. Fluffy couches were dispersed throughout it, and several coffee tables held lamps. Moonlight shone in through the windows, and the whole room seemed to emanate warmth and comfort.

"Well, come on," said Rose, giving my arm a tug. Roxanne had already climbed through the portrait hole. I shook myself and followed, feeling sure that, like McGonagall had said, this was going to be a good year.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

By the end of my first week at Hogwarts, I had discovered that the food was always fantastic, nothing like the questionable cafeteria food I had had at my old school.

"Where's Albus?" I asked Rose on the Monday of my second week, noticing his absence for the first time.

"Oh, he's a Ravenclaw. Didn't anyone tell you?" replied Rose, her mouth full of scrambled eggs. Sure enough, when I glanced over at the Ravenclaw table, I spotted him talking animatedly to a girl with light brown hair in a bob cut and very pale skin.

"No, they didn't," I said, mostly to myself. "Who's that girl he's talking to?"

"Oh, that's Clarice Longbottom. Her dad's the Herbology professor. All of our dads are really close friends, so she's always over for dinner and holidays and stuff."

"Are they, you know, together?"

Rose almost choked on her pumpkin juice. "Merlin, no! They're just good friends. Trust me, a bunch of people, including me, tried to get them together last year. It was a disaster; Al wouldn't talk to me for a week."

I smiled. "Hey, where did you get that timetable from?"

"Under the plate. You were probably too busy stuffing your face with bacon to notice, though." I smacked Rose's arm. "OW!" I then pulled out the heavy piece of parchment out from under the plate.

"We've got Potions first. Great. I get to start out my week in the dungeons." I grumbled, remembering what Rose had told me about this particular class. "And it's with the Slytherins!"

"What's so bad about Slytherin?" asked a drawling voice from behind me. As I turned around, I saw a very pale boy with sleek blonde hair standing behind me. He wore a green and silver Slytherin tie and badge. "Malfoy. Scorpius Malfoy. And you are?"

I hestitated. He made me nervous, like the guys at my old school who would pretend to be nice before making your life miserable. "Allie Lancaster."

He sneered. "Muggle-born?"

"Yes," I said, knowing that I was blushing. "What's it to you?"

"Nothing," he said. "Except that Hogwarts ought to be for purebloods only. Mudbloods like you don't deserve to be here."

I had no idea what he had just said, but I heard Rose, James, and Will gasp. "You take that back, Malfoy," said Will angrily. When I looked at him, I saw that his wand was out, as were Rose's and James's.

"You know what?" said Scorpius, slowly drawing his wand. "I don't think I will." Then, all at the same time, the four of them cast curses.

"EXPELLIARMUS!"

"LEVICORPUS!"

"LOCOMOTOR MORTIS!"

"FURNUNCULUS!"

I was between the line of fire, and having the worst reflexes in the world, I didn't duck fast enough. At the first yell, I felt my wand fly out of my pocket and halfway across the hall as I fell out of my seat, shins knocking painfully on the table. Then, quite suddenly, I found myself being held upside down by an ankle. As Rose yelled, I felt my legs lose feeling and clamp together. Finally, as Scorpius's curse reached me, my skin erupted in pain. I saw boils growing on my hand as I flailed about, screaming. Soon, the pain became unbearable, and I blacked out.

I could feel warm sunlight pricking at my eyelids, and someone was breathing beside me. After what seemed like a lifetime, I managed to lift my heavy eyelids. The room blurred, drifting in and out of focus, until I found a single face looking down at me expectantly. Will.

"Allie!" he breathed, looking relieved. "Are you okay?" I looked down at myself. The boils were gone.

"I think so," I said. "What happened?" He grimaced.

"All of our curses got you at the same time. Al, I'm so sorry! I really didn't mean to hit you."

I sat up slowly, pleased to see that the room had come into clear focus and stopped spinning. "Will, it's okay. Besides, you just disarmed me. It was Malfoy who sent the Furnunculus Curse, wasn't it?" At this, his face darkened and he looked murderous.

"I am going to kill him," he growled.

"Will, if you kill him you'll be expelled. You're going to have to settle for hexing him into oblivion, okay?"

"Don't think that I won't, either," he said in an undertone. Just then, the nurse bustled in.

"I see you're awake, Miss Lancaster. I am Madam Pomfrey. How do you feel?" I sat up.

"Fine," I said. "A little tender, but I think I can go back to classes." I started to get up.

"Oh no you don't, missy!" she said sternly, pushing me back into bed. "You can't leave until I run a diagnostic spell on you. And you'll need to rest for at least another hour. Besides," she said in a kinder tone, "you'll want to open your presents." I looked at my nightstand, and sure enough, there were a few packets of candy and notes.

I groaned. "Madam Pomfrey," I said, trying to channel innocence. "It's the first day of classes. I'll miss the introductions and important stuff! Can't you just cast the spell and let me leave?"

"Absolutely not," she said, drawing her wand. "Now, just relax while I run this spell and then you can eat some of your candy." She began waving her wand and muttering some quick incantations. A funny, ticklish feeling swept through my body and then she tapped the wand to a piece of parchment. A full medical description appeared. "Very well, you seem to be recovering just fine. I'll let you go in an hour. Mr. Lancaster, I suggest you get back to lunch. I'll be in my office if you need me."

"Well, I guess I'll see you at dinner, then," said Will.

After he'd left, I examined my candy carefully. The first thing that caught my eye was a bag of the same type of jelly beans that Lily had been eating on the train. _Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans,_ the label read. Hmm, well I suppose I can't go wrong with jelly beans. I ripped open the package and popped a little pink one into my mouth.

"Blech!" I said, spitting it out immediately. The taste had reminded me suspiciously of soap. I looked at the bag again. On the back, it said _We really do mean EVERY flavour!"_ I decided to try a lumpy brown one. Mmm, hot cocoa! I spent a good part of the hour tasting the beans, getting caramel, marmalade, grass, roast chicken, and an odd puke-coloured one that tasted suspiciously like mucus just to name a few. When I had finished nearly half of the bag, I looked back at the rest of the candy and noticed a small, folded piece of parchment hidden behind a box of chocolates from some place called Honeydukes. Pushing the rest of the candy aside, I opened it and read:

_Allie,_

_I'm sorry._

_Scorpius_

I leaned back, shocked. Scorpius Muggle-borns-are-scum Malfoy had _apologised_ to me! What was going on?


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Finally, _finally_, after that long hour was over, Madam Pomfrey let me go back to classes. Consulting my schedule, I found that I was supposed to be in Defense Against the Dark Arts with the famous Professor Potter. To be honest, I was a little nervous. After all, he was in almost all of my school books, and now I was meeting him! After a few wrong turns, I found the right corridor and, taking a deep breath, walked in the classroom.

Professor Potter was in the middle of saying something to the whole class, which was gathered around his desk. But when I walked in, every head turned my way, which was highly embarrassing. Rose caught my eye and smiled.

"Hello, are you Allie Lancaster?" asked Professor Potter.

"Yes, sir," I said. My voice sounded very high pitched.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Miss Lancaster," he said. He seemed to sense my discomfort. "If you'll just put your books away and join us right here, I'll continue our lesson." I quickly threw my satchel down next to the bag that I recognized as Rose's and hurried to the front of the room. I noticed that a lot of the students were staring openly at Professor Potter in awe, and I quickly checked to make sure I wasn't doing the same.

"Now, who can help catch Miss Lancaster up on what we've been discussing?" A few hands went up. "Yes, Mr. Scamander?"

A boy who looked about my age with curly, dirty blonde hair and rather dreamy looking blue eyes said, "We were talking about the Conjunctivitus Curse." I noticed that a boy who looked like he might be his twin sat at his right.

"Good, Lysander. Now, can someone else tell me what the Conjunctivitus Curse does?" I saw Rose's hand shoot up into the air. "Yes, Ro- Miss Weasley?"

Rose smiled, apparently thinking how strange it was for her uncle to call her by her last name. "The Conjunctivitus Curse, when aimed correctly, causes great pain to the eyes. It can be used to incapacitate an animal or wizard, and it is one of the few curses that will effectively hurt a dragon." She and Professor Potter both smiled at some kind of inside joke.

"Excellent. Five points for Gryffindor." As this class was all Gryffindor, no one seemed to care that the professor was slightly biased to his niece. "Now, I'm going to demonstrate. Who wants to volunteer to be my subject?" Everyone visibly leaned back. "Only joking. Merlin, Andrew, don't look at me like that! I have a practice dummy." The class sighed with relief. Professor Potter walked over to a closet in the back of his room and wheeled out a mannequin-ish thing with realistic, blinking eyes. He pulled out his wand. "_Conjunctivitus!_" The mannequin began to scream in agony, its cloth hands moving to rub its eyes. Professor Potter lowered his wand, and the mannequin went back to normal. "Now, everyone go back to your seats and you can have a go at it. Each of you will have a dummy to practice on. All you have to do is concentrate very hard, say _Conjunctivitus_, and jab and twist your wand, like this." He demonstrated. "Keep a firm grip and be very careful with your aim; I don't want to send anyone to the Hospital Wing this class. Remember, this is really advanced stuff for third year, so don't worry if you don't get it right away. I just thought it would be fun to try something a little challenging on our first day." All the students trooped back to their desks. Professor Potter then muttered something that I guessed was a Banishing Charm. The closet door opened and a dozen mannequins wheeled themselves out, each one stopping at a desk. "You may work with partners."

Rose and I sat down. "Are you alright?" asked Rose. "I'm so sorry; I didn't know the curse would hit you!"

"I'm fine," I assured her, grinning. "At least I got a lot of candy out of it. And I got to miss Potions."

Obviously satisfied, Rose pulled out her wand, said very clearly, "_Conjunctivitus_!", and jabbed her wand at the mannequin.

There was a puff of smoke, and as it dispersed, we saw that the mannequin's eyes had vanished. "Oops," she mumbled, blushing. "Um, Unc- Professor?" He looked up from the student he was helping across the room. "I think we may need a new dummy. Or at least more eyes." He smiled, pointed his wand at the mannequin, and new eyes appeared on it, blinking rapidly. "Thanks!"

"My turn," I said. I tried to concentrate on the mannequin's eyes, imagining a million needles shooting out of my wand and stabbing them. "_Conjunctivitus_!" I jabbed my wand. The mannequin immediately started rubbing its eyes, but it didn't appear to be in pain. Just annoyed.

"Almost," said Rose encouragingly. I smiled. It was nice to know that I wasn't, as I had feared that I was going to be, the worst in the class. In fact, it appeared that Rose's mine were the best results as of then in the class. Lysander Lovegood and his twin seemed to have managed to set their mannequin on fire, while Roxanne and her partner's hadn't done anything, much like most of the others in the room. In my peripheral vision, I saw Professor Potter headed our way.

"Very good, Miss Lancaster! You too, Ro- Miss- Oh, what the heck, Rose." Rose and I smiled.

"Professor?" I said.

"Miss Lancaster?"

"D'you think you could show me and Rose what we're doing wrong?" Rose nodded.

"Sure," he said, kneeling down so that we were all on the same level. "Let's see it."

"You first, Rose," I said.

She pulled the mannequin in front of her and said, "_Conjunctivitus_!", pointing her wand neatly. The eyes disappeared again.

"That was very good, Rose. I think your only problem was your concentration. If you concentrate just a little bit harder, you'll have it down."

Rose screwed up her face in concentration. "_Conjunctivitus_!" This time, the mannequin immediately started screaming and rubbing its eyes. Rose lowered her wand.

"Great!" said Professor Potter, silencing the mannequin. "Your turn, Allie."

"_Conjunctivitus_!" I poked my wand at the mannequin as hard as I could, imagining the needles again. But this time, the mannequin didn't even rub its eyes; it just started blinking faster.

"I think your problem is what you're concentrating on. What are you thinking of when you perform the curse?" I told him about the needles. "Well, that's a good idea, but we need it to be more painful than needles." He laughed at the expression on my face. "Don't be afraid to be violent, Allie. Think of the person you detest most in the world, and imagine what you would like to do to their eyes."

I saw a brief but vivid mental picture of Scorpius with hot knives being swiped across his eyes, then felt a twinge of guilt. "Ready?" I nodded.

"_Conjunctivitus_!" The mannequin gave a shrill cry and clapped its hands over its eyes.

"Great job!" said Professor Potter. "Knew you two could do it."

By the end of class, Rose, Lysander's twin (I later learned that his name was Lorcan) and I were the only ones who had successfully performed the curse. Our homework was simply to practice the curse ("NOT on other students!" said Professor Potter as a few boys raised their wands at each other with mischievous grins.) He then gave Rose, Lorcan, and I each five points for Gryffindor and sent us, high-fiving each other, to our next class, which happened to be History of Magic, possibly the most boring class ever.

Professor Binns, a ghost who had been teaching, according to Rose, since before Professor Potter had come to school, could make even interesting topics sound dull. The whole class was spent taking notes on the famous Dark wizard Grindelwald. I was still getting used to writing with a quill and managed to splatter ink all over my notes. Fortunately for me, Rose noticed and taught me a charm to siphon away the excess ink.

In our last class of the day, Herbology with the Ravenclaws, I met Professor Longbottom, Clarice's dad. We were learning about a plant called Mimbulus Mimbletonia. It looked a lot like a cactus, except it was grey, lumpy, and had no splinters. According to Professor Longbottom, the big one that he was showing as an example in the front of the greenhouse was his own, and he had had it since his fifth year. Most of the students looked awed, but Clarice looked rather bored, as if she had heard this story many times before. I figured I wouldn't be too happy if my dad was my teacher either.

During dinner, which was my first incident-free meal at Hogwarts, (well, not entirely. Hugo managed to spill hot gravy on James. The resounding whack as James's hand met the back of Hugo's head echoed all over the Great Hall, although Hugo seemed to be fine.) Professor McGonagall stood up and made an announcement.

"Attention, students." The hall immediately fell silent. "As many of you know, this year Hogwarts will be hosting an annual exchange student program. We will have students from the Durmstrang Institute and Beauxbatons Academy residing here, and for the first time, we will also be hosting students from an American school, Rolaires Academy. The Durmstrang students have already arrived, as most of you have probably noticed, and Beauxbatons and Rolaires are on their way. I know that you will treat them all with greatest respect."

As soon as she finished, the hall erupted with excited chatter and the scraping of fork against plate.

Later that night in the Common Room, Rose and I sat by the fire, doing our homework. James and Hugo were playing a game of wizard's chess ("This set was my dad's," Hugo had told us proudly) as Lily watched interestedly. While the three of them were distracted by James's bishop, which was busy clubbing its way through a line of pawns, I quickly told Rose about Malfoy's note.

"_What?_" she said loudly. James, Hugo, and Lily stared. "Um, I've just realized. Our um, History of Magic essay has to be, er, six inches. I thought we had to do seven." They all rolled their eyes. Apparently this was a normal Rose thing. "Let me see it!" she whispered.

I pulled it out of my pocket. "Alright, but you can't keep on screaming! I don't want everyone to know." She nodded, snatched the parchment out of my hands, and opened it.

"I can't believe it," she said, rereading it. "It really was Malfoy. This is his handwriting; I was his Potions partner today. Wow, this is really unlike him. Maybe… no, even he wouldn't stoop that low… after all, he's just met you… Allie, this _is_ the first time you've met him, right?"

"Yes, but what does it matter? And what are you even going on about? Honestly, I don't see why you're not in Ravenclaw."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Because the Sorting Hat put me in Gryffindor, you prat. Well, anyways, I was just thinking maybe he's trying to soften you up so he can do something to you again… but like I said, I don't think he would go so low. Besides, he hasn't got the brains for it. Well, he has, but I don't think he would do that. I don't trust him, though. My dad said our families have been enemies for centuries. Stupid pureblood maniacs."

"Oh," I said, not quite sure what to say. "Well, maybe he had to. Like for punishment."

"No, he got detention. We all did. Well, except you, of course."

"Oh, Merlin, Rose! I'm so sorry you got detention because of me!"

She smiled. "Nah, it's alright. It's with Hagrid, and he won't make us do anything too bad. We probably just have to go with him the Forbidden Forest and feed some unicorns or whatever."

"Well, I'm still sorry."

"It really isn't that bad. Oh my gosh, Allie. It's really too bad that you missed Potions today. There's a really hot exchange student from Durmstrang in that class, and he was right across from me. Merlin, you _have_ to see him tomorrow. Dimitri, I think his name is. Allie, this guy is seriously good looking." I laughed. She was infatuated with a guy who, as far as I could tell, she hadn't even said one word to yet.

"Wonder if there'll be any cute guys from Rolaires," I mused, remembering McGonagall's announcement at dinner.

"Betcha there will," said Rose. "Maybe one of them can teach me to do an American accent; I've always wanted to learn."

Before I could tell her that that was the most absurd thing she'd said tonight, James jumped up, punched the air, and shouted, "YES!"

Hugo frowned. "'S not fair," he said. "You always win."

James grinned, his dark hair falling messily over his happy eyes. "Sorry, little cuz. You're just gonna have to work on your strategy before you can defeat JAMES POTTER!" Lily rolled her eyes and got up, straightening her skirt. Obviously she had heard this spiel before. "Yes, I seem to have inherited my uncle's talent for wizard's chess. Rose, Allie, did you see that move my bishop made? It was absolutely brilliant! All of Hugo's pawns just went crashing down…"

"Okay James, we get it. You beat a first year at chess. Excellent work. I'm going to bed now. Goodnight. Allie, you coming?" Rose turned towards me.

"Yeah, just let me grab my books. 'Night Lily, 'night James, 'night Hugo."

All together, they said, "G'night." Smiling, I shoved my books into my satchel and headed for the girls' dormitories.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

I managed to catch Malfoy after Potions on Friday. Believe it or not, Potions wasn't half as bad as I had thought it was going to be. I was paired with Lysander Lovegood, who tended to talk about Nargles and Crumple-Horned Snorkacks a lot but otherwise was a very good partner. Rose sat in front of me with her cousin, Roxanne. Professor Slughorn was alright, if a bit annoying, and I had managed to make a decent Confusing Concoction that day. Anyway, class had just finished, and Slughorn had retreated to his office when I spotted Malfoy alone, for once not surrounded by his Slytherin friends.

"Go on without me, I'll catch you up," I said to Rose, who was waiting for me in the doorway. She shrugged and headed off to Transfiguration. "Malfoy," I called. He turned around. "Can I talk to you?"

"Er, sure," he said, looking slightly apprehensive. I slung my satchel over my shoulder and we began to walk.

"Well, I just wanted to say thank you. For apologizing. I appreciate it."

A faint pink tinge spread across his cheeks. "Yeah, sure."

"Okay," I said, a little bit confused by his brusque manner. "Well, no offense or anything, but why did you apologize?"

"You wouldn't get it," he muttered.

Now I was rather annoyed. "Oh, yeah? Try me. Look, I don't know what your problem is, but you're being really confusing, and I think you at least owe me an explanation."

His face softened a tiny fraction, and he blushed a little more. "Fine. I apologized because of my dad."

So Rose was right! "Your dad made you?"

"No," he said quickly. "I apologized because I don't want to end up like my dad." Okay, so Rose hadn't been right. But now I was even more confused.

"Um, why not?"

"Oh yeah, you wouldn't know. You're a Mud- Muggle-born." He didn't say it cruelly, as he had before. Just a statement of fact. "In the war against Voldemort, my family was one of the main supporters of the Dark side. I come from a family of Death Eaters, okay?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"Well, now you do. Anyway, after I cursed you, everyone- well, except my friends and some of the Slytherins- was looking at me like they wouldn't have expected anything else out of Draco Malfoy's son. I just want to prove to people that I don't have to be what my father was. And I knew what I did was wrong and, to be honest, pretty stupid."

I was shocked. From what Rose had said, you would have thought Scorpius was an evil maniac who cursed anyone in his way. Sure, he was a little bit curt, but I had a feeling that he was just embarrassed.

"Look, I have to get to class. But do you think you can-er- forgive me?" He was officially the color of a well-cooked salmon.

I sighed. Rose was going to _Avada Kedavra_ me, burn my body, and tap dance on my grave. "Yes, Scorpius. I forgive you."

"Friends?" He stuck out his hand.

"Friends." I shook it.

"_WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"_ screeched Rose when I told her at dinner. "_EVERYONE IN HIS WHOLE FAMILY IS A BLOODY PUREBLOOD MANIAC!"_

"Rose! Stop yelling, everyone's looking!" I spotted Albus and Clarice staring at us curiously from the Ravenclaw table, and down the Gryffindor table Roxanne and Fred were whispering and pointing. James, Will, Lily, and Hugo, who had heard everything, were also staring.

"Seriously Allie, I think it's a bad idea. He cursed you on the first day of school before he'd even met you!" Will said, looking concerned. "He could just be using you."

"Stop, guys. I don't like him that way. We're barely even friends. And when he apologized, I could tell it was sincere. Maybe he really has changed." Rose just looked at me disbelievingly.

"You only like him because he's good looking."

Now I was annoyed. "Rose, are you deaf, or did you just not her me say that I don't like him that way? And why would you, of all people, notice how he looks?"

She blushed furiously. "Oh, so now you think _I_ like him? Well think again, Allie." She picked up her bread roll, stood up, and stormed out of the Great Hall.

"Fantastic," I muttered to myself, putting my head in my hands. I had managed to turn my first friend at Hogwarts against me.

"Hey, what's up? I saw Rose run out absolutely steaming." I looked up and saw that Albus had taken Rose's seat.

"Oh, someone else tell him." I put my head back down. Vaguely, I heard Will explain what had happened, with the others butting in occasionally.

"Scorpius Malfoy did that?" said Albus, sounding shell-shocked. "That was… unexpected."

"I know, and Rose just blew up on me for no apparent reason. What is up with her?"

Hugo spoke up for the first time. "It's not just her. It's our whole family. The Weasleys and the Malfoys have hated each other for centuries. I mean, I'm sure he doesn't mean to-well, then again, maybe he does- but my dad has sort of ingrained it into us that all the Malfoys are evil scum. It's what I've been taught since I could understand it."

Now that he mentioned it, I remembered Rose telling me about her family hating the Malfoys. "Oh. Thanks, Hugo."

"Don't mention it."

"You know, she really may have a point," said James. "For centuries, the Malfoys _have_ been evil scum. Why would Scorpius want to change?"

Why did they keep bringing this up? "I don't know, ok? Do I look like Scorpius Malfoy to you? All I know is that a fairly decent person apologized to me and asked me to forgive him, and I did. What is so wrong about that?"

"Allie, I'm just saying-"

"Guys, why don't we just let this simmer down overnight and we can figure it out tomorrow?" Albus interrupted his brother. "Or one of us might say something he –or she- will regret."

"Alright, well I'm going to bed now," I said. "Goodnight." I got up and started towards the door.

Just as I was closing the doors behind me, I heard Will call, "Allie! It's only 7:00! Why are you going to bed so early?" I rolled my eyes. Boys can be so stupid.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I was sitting on my bed, the curtains drawn, absolutely fuming. How could she do this to me? She knew how I was about Scorpius, and I already had a detention on her account. I punched my pillow, imagining that it was Scorpius's fat (not really; actually, his face was rather angular), lying, pureblood-fanatic face, and I remembered what my dad had told me on my first day at Hogwarts.

"So that's little Scorpius? Be sure to beat him in every test, Rosie. And don't get too friendly with him. Grandpa Weasley would never forgive you if you married a Malfoy."

He had been right. My first year, we had gotten into a fistfight when he had said that my family was a bunch of filthy blood traitors. (Admittedly, I had said his family was a bunch of Death Eaters first, but it was true!) Second year, we had been paired together for a Transfiguration project. Apparently McGonagall had thought that working together would make us less hostile. We wound up getting a T on the project because we had started a shouting match during the presentation ("AT LEAST MY FAMILY CAN AFFORD ALL OF THEIR CHILDREN!") ("AT LEAST MY FAMILY DIDN'T HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE!"). I could see that this year was going to be no different.

Gradually, the rest of the girls came in. I heard Roxanne talking to Allie, and I feigned sleep as they peeked in my curtains. Soon I drifted off, still in my robes, dreaming about beating Scorpius in every test.

The next day at breakfast, Allie tried to sit next to me. I moved to the Ravenclaw table and sat with Albus and Clarice. I didn't really know why; I wasn't even all that mad at her anymore. But I am a Weasley, and Weasleys hold grudges. If you don't believe me, ask my dad. He wouldn't talk to my mum for weeks in sixth year after he found out that she had kissed this Quidditch player called Viktor Krum in fourth year. And she and Dad hadn't even been dating at that point. Of course, I wouldn't go to that extreme, but you get my drift.

"Rose, what are you doing today?"

Clarice's voice pierced my thoughts. "Huh? Oh, today's Saturday, isn't it? Uh, I guess I should probably get a head start on my homework, but other than that I don't really know."

"Do you want to come to the greenhouse with me and Albus? My dad asked us to help him clean up." She grimaced a little bit there. I knew that she wasn't particularly fond of Herbology but was expected to get high marks because her dad was the professor.

"Sure. When are you going?"

"How 'bout we meet up there at ten?"

"Fine by me. See you then." I quickly finished my breakfast and went upstairs to start my homework. I didn't get far; at 9:50 I put away my books (all I had finished was Defense) and started towards the greenhouse.

As I passed the Quidditch field, I spotted two people flying in and out of the hoops. Maniacs. The Quidditch season hadn't even started yet and wasn't going to for another three weeks.

When I finally reached the greenhouse, I could see the silhouettes of Albus and Clarice throwing dirt at each other. Despite what I had told Allie, I still thought they would be a cute couple. Just as I walked into the greenhouse, Albus threw a lump of dirt at Clarice. She ducked, and guess who it hit? Me, of course.

"Albus," I growled. His grin fell off his face, and he started to look rather nervous, making me want to crack up, but I maintained an scowling face.

"Er, Rose, um, you do know I didn't mean to hit you? I was aiming for Clarice," his voice trailed away as he saw me pick up a handful of dirt. "No, you really don't want to do that…" SPLAT! Too late. The clod hit him right in the middle of his face, knocking his glasses askew.

I pulled out my wand, pointed it at my face, and muttered, "_Tergeo_." The dirt was immediately siphoned away. Albus and Clarice did the same.

"I'm going to get you back for that, Rose," he said, trying and failing miserably to hide a smile.

"No, no, we're even now. If you try to get me back, I'll have to get you back."

He thought for a minute. "Good point. Honestly, Rose, why aren't you in Ravenclaw?"

"You're the second person this week to say that."

"Well maybe there's a reason for that. Come on, we're supposed to be cleaning up."

I rolled my eyes. "Al, you and Clarice are the ones who started the dirt fight."

Clarice interrupted. "Not true. It was all Albus."

"No it wasn't! You were the one who…"

"GUYS!" They fell silent. I pointed my wand at one of the broken pots. "_Reparo_." It flew back together.

We spent the rest of the morning in lighthearted repartee, and I quickly forgot all about Allie.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Rose was officially avoiding me.

When I tried to sit next to her at breakfast, she promptly got up (with her plate of bacon) and walked over to the Ravenclaw table without even glancing back. I heard her talking to Albus and Clarice and sighed.

"Y'know, Allie, I don't think she's really mad at you anymore," said James. I raised an eyebrow at him. "Seriously! She's a Weasley, and not to stereotype or anything, but Weasleys hold grudges. Ask anyone."

"So if she's not mad at me anymore then why won't she even sit next to me?"

"Who knows? It's Rose; I gave up trying to understand her years ago. Say, Allie, you got any plans for today?"

"Nope, except homework. Why?"

"Homework? On a Saturday? You're such a goody two shoes! You're giving my Aunt Hermione a run for her money."

"Oh, stuff it. Why did you want to know?"

"I was gonna take my broom out for a spin and was wondering if you wanted to come along."

"Sure, why not? It beats homework."

He smiled. "Excellent. Have you got a broom?"

"Nope. Muggle-born first-year-would-be, remember?"

"Right. Will, mate, can she borrow yours?"

Will pretended to look horrified. "My baby Nova 500?"

"That's the one." I said cheerfully.

"Sure. It's in the Gryffindor broom shed."

James turned to me. "So I'll meet you at the broom shed at 9:30?"

Fred wolf whistled. I hadn't even noticed he was there. "Merlin, James, another one? You sure are going through them fast… What happened to Anna?" James smacked him upside the head. "Ow! Only joking!"

At 9:20 I started towards the broom shed. I wasn't precisely sure about where it was but knew that it had to be near the Quidditch pitch, which you couldn't miss, so I found it all right. James was standing outside it, holding a Firebolt 20 and running his hand through his hair. I absentmindedly wondered if he did it on purpose to make his hair messy, like he had just gotten off of his broom or something.

"Hey, Allie," he said.

"James." I opened the door and quickly spotted my brother's broom. I grabbed it and closed the shed. "Ready?"

"Whenever you are." We started towards the pitch. "So, do you know how to fly?"

"I know _how_, but I've never actually done it. We live in London, see, so it'd be rather difficult to fly a broom without the Muggles noticing."

"Right," he said. "Well, I know Will's an excellent flier, so I'm sure you will be too. Are you-" He stopped walking, and I bumped into him.

"James, what..?" Looking up ahead, I got my answer. Scorpius and some other guy were headed our way. "James, don't do anything stupid…" I said, getting ready to restrain him if I had to.

"Hey, Allie," said Scorpius politely. "Potter." He nodded at James, who didn't say anything.

"Hi Scorpius," I said.

"So I see you're going flying?"

"Yes, I'm borrowing my brother's broom. First time," I said, smiling a little.

"Nice." His friend coughed. "Oh, yeah. Allie, this is my friend Dimitri Ivanov. He's a student from Durmstrang. Dimitri, this is Allie Lancaster." Perhaps this was the Dimitri that Rose had told me about.

"Pleased to meet you," said Dimitri. His voice was fairly deep, with a hint of an accent.

"And you," I said. I sneaked a glance at James to see how he was doing. His face was blank, but I could see that he was very tense, his fists balled up. "Well, it's been nice talking, but we've really got to go. I'll see you later."

"Bye," they said simultaneously. I gave James's arm a little tug and started walking. He stalked after me.

"That stupid little git!" James burst out as soon as they were out of earshot. Only he didn't say stupid.

"Calm down, James. He didn't do anything to you."

"Whatever. I still hate his guts. And that Dimitri- I don't like the way he looks at you."

I blushed, and to cover it up, I said, "Who are you turning into, Will?"

A smile. "Sorry. You probably hear enough of that with him." He shook his head, as if by doing that he could clear all thoughts of Scorpius and Dimitri from his head. "Come on, let's fly." We had reached the center of the pitch. "Now, do you know how to mount?"

I rolled my eyes. "Like I said, I know how. Just never done it before."

He smiled. "Just checking. Come on, follow me." He mounted his broom and kicked off, soaring into the cloudless sky. I followed suit, albeit a bit more cautiously. The words from _Quidditch through the Ages_ came back to me. Lean forward to go forward, pull back to brake. Angle the broom left to turn left and vice versa. Quite straightforward, really. I was now hovering at about twenty feet in the air, nearly parallel to the lowest goal.

"C'mon, Lancaster! Is that the highest you can go?"

There was no way I was letting James Potter outfly me. Even though he most definitely would. Well, I would put up a good fight, at least. I leaned forward hard and tilted my broom upward. I felt my stomach drop as I shot into the air, cruising to a stop across from James.

"Going to let a first time flier beat you, James?" I teased.

"Now," he said, beaming widely, "you catch me." And he zoomed away towards the goals.

"Oh, it's on," I muttered, a grin spreading across my face despite my attempt to, as Will would put it, "put on a game face". I leaned forward and flew after him.

James was an excellent flier. He wove between the goalposts, into the stands, (I waited for him at the other end, not trusting my flying skills to not crash me) and even through the goals a few times. I was never even close to catching him; his broom was far better and he was much more experienced.

"Give up, Allie!"

I might be hopeless, but I definitely wasn't weak. "You wish!" I leaned further, matching his steep dive.

The ground loomed nearer and nearer. Shouldn't he be pulling up by now? Ten feet closer. Okay, he either had lost control of the broom or was trying to show off. I had a feeling it was the latter. Well, I for one wasn't going to turn myself into a human pancake. I jerked my broom up hard, pulling out of the dive. James kept going, and as I looked over my shoulder I saw him start to pull up. But it was too late. The handle of his broom caught on the ground, and it flipped, tossing him through the air like a weightless rag doll. He hit the ground with a thud, and I gasped, whipping around and making a crash landing. I rolled once and landed on my hands and knees, winded but unhurt. Crawling over to where James lay, I saw that his nose was leaking blood onto his face. It stood out against his pale cheeks, a trail of scarlet. His arm was bent at an odd angle and I was pretty sure I had never seen a leg look like that. I was also sure that I had never been so scared in my life.

"James, please, no," I whispered, feeling frantically for a pulse. Thank Merlin, I found it. "Godric, James, wake up. Please…" I was afraid to move him, but not sure how else to get him awake. Help, that's what I needed. Maybe Scorpius was still around? I scrambled to my feet. "SCORPIUS! DIMITRI!"

There was no response, so I figured they must have left, but I saw silhouettes moving in the greenhouse up the hill. Taking one last look at James lying on the ground, I grabbed my broom and kicked off.

I had never flown so fast, not even while James was taunting me, and I realized that if I hadn't been panicked about James dying or something, it would have been enjoyable. I made a sharp turn and jumped off the broom at the greenhouse door. Yanking it open, I yelled, "HELP! JAMES FELL OFF HIS- Rose?"

She whirled around, and I saw Albus and Clarice look up behind her. "What are you doing here?"

"James-" I gasped for air. "He fell off his broom, and he's bleeding, and I know something's broken… I can't get him to wake up… Please, you've got to help me…" Before I could finish, Albus was already out the door. I ran after him, yelling over my shoulder, "Come on!" I heard their footsteps behind me, slapping on the greenhouse floor.

"Allie, get on behind me," said Albus, hopping on Will's broom. I obeyed, wrapping my arms around his waist to stay on. "Rose, Clarice!" he yelled towards them. "Just run after us!" They started sprinting as we took off.

As we flew over the pitch, I saw two figures leaning over James. Who could that be?

We landed about five feet from James, and we both tumbled off. Albus reached him first, and I realized that the two figures were Scorpius and Dimitri. So they had heard me.

I ran over, leaning over James next to Dimitri and Albus. "I found a pulse last time, but I can't get him to wake up. How do we get him back to the castle?"

"Wingardium Leviosa?" suggested Dimitri.

"No, it'll jostle him too much," muttered Albus. "But we can do something for him." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few candies. He took a purple one and broke off a small piece, sticking it in James's mouth. He did again once James seemed to have swallowed the first piece.

"Albus, what are you doing?"

"Nosebleed Nougats," he said, not taking his eyes off his brother. "Nosebleed Nougats. Uncle George's invention."

"Oh," I said, not understanding at all.

Just then, Rose and Clarice came running towards us. "Oh Merlin," said Rose, holding a stitch in her side with one hand and putting her other hand over her mouth. "We need help."

"One of us should go back to the castle on the broom," said Scorpius, speaking for the first time since we had arrived.

"Right," I said. "But which one of us?"

"Not Al," said Rose quickly. "He actually knows how to do something for James."

"I'll go."

Everyone, even Albus and Scorpius, looked up in shock at Dimitri's offer.

"I'd better go with him; we can find a teacher faster if we split up," I said.

Albus nodded. "Okay." We didn't move for a moment. "GO!" Dimitri grabbed the broom and mounted it. I climbed on behind him, and we took off.

Dimitri was an excellent flier. Not as good as James, of course, but definitely good enough to be on the team. I made a mental note to mention this to him later. For the umpteenth time that day, the broom jerked to a stop and I tumbled off.

"Are you alright?" asked Dimitri.

"Fine," I said, brushing off my jeans. "Come on, we've gotta get going. You get a teacher, any teacher. I'll get Madame Pomfrey." We split up, and I raced off in the direction I was pretty sure the infirmary was in.

Completely winded (have I mentioned that Hogwarts really needs to invest in elevators?), I burst into the infirmary. A first year boy looked up from his bed. Scanning the room, I saw that Madame Pomfrey was in her office. Forcing my tired legs to move, I yanked her door open.

"Madame Pomfrey!" She was sitting at her desk, clipping a picture from what appeared to be a catalogue for robes.

"Allie?"

"Ma-Madame Pomfrey," I said, struggling to catch my breath. "James Potter, he- he fell off his broom, and he's bleeding, and something's broken, and please, we need your help!"

Before I had finished, she had already jumped out of her chair. "Winky!" I briefly wondered whether she was quite sane. Then, with a little POP!, a little bat-eared creature with big, tennis-ball like eyes appeared next to her, and I knew she was insane.

"What is Madame Pomfrey needing from Winky?" she said in a squeaky little voice, bowing.

"Winky, can you Apparate us to-" she turned to me. "Where did you say he was?"

"Quidditch pitch."

"Yes. Can you Apparate us to the Quidditch pitch, please?"

"Of course, Madame Pomfrey," she squeaked. Oh. So maybe she wasn't insane. "Is you needing me to take the young mistress as well?"

"Yes, please, Winky." The little creature took Madame Pomfrey's hand and extended her other one to me. I looked at Madame Pomfrey questioningly. She nodded, so I took it. There was another POP!, an uncomfortable rushing sensation, and we found ourselves on the pitch where Albus seemed to have stopped the bleeding, and Rose and Clarice hovered around him trying to help. Scorpius stood a few feet away, looking awkward. I stood doubled over for a moment, fighting off a wave of nausea that I was pretty sure was from the Apparating.

"Out of my way," said Madame Pomfrey, her voice becoming the bossy, professional tone that I remembered from my visit to the hospital wing. Al, Rose, and Clarice backed up to where Scorpius was. I felt distinctly out of place: Rose was probably still mad at me, I really didn't know Albus or Clarice that well, and Scorpius- well, he was really more of a nice acquaintance than a friend, making Dimitri an acquaintance of an acquaintance. So I just stood there, watching Madame Pomfrey nod approvingly at James's no longer bleeding nose, frown at his arm and leg, and run a quick diagnostic spell over him. "Oh dear," she said.

"What? Is he okay? What's wrong?" everyone said all at once (except Scorpius, but he at least looked appropriately worried).

"Mr. Potter seems to have cracked his skull when he fell, and he is also concussed. Miss Lancaster, how long ago did this happen?"

"I don't really know; maybe a half hour? I had to run for help first because we were alone."

"Well, we're going to need to get him back to the castle immediately so I can treat him properly."

"But Madame Pomfrey, he'll be okay, right?" said Albus, sounding so scared and innocent it was almost heartbreaking.

Her face softened. "I'm sure he will, Albus." Then, in a more brisk way, she said, "If he's anything like your father, he'll be out of the hospital wing in no time. Goodness knows that boy was in my care so much he should have had a frequent visitor card!" Everyone attempted to smile at her joke.

Just then, Dimitri and Professor Potter came streaking down the hill towards us. Madame Pomfrey muttered something that sounded like "and now here he is, a hysterical parent" and began casting a charm to lift James.

They reached us. Professor Potter, panting, said, "Madame Pomfrey-"

"How many times have I told you? You are not my student anymore, you may call me Poppy as the rest of the staff does."

"Poppy," he corrected exasperatedly, "is James okay? Dimitri here told me he fell off his broom!"

"Yes, he did, but he will be perfectly fine if you will move out of the way and let me get him back to the hospital wing! Wouldn't be too worried if I were you, not half as bad as when those dementors made you fall."

Professor Potter looked sheepish, stepping aside. "Sorry, Mad- Poppy."

"Well, Mr. Malfoy, you and your friend can leave. Miss Longbottom, Miss Lancaster-"

"Nuh-uh. I'm staying; I'm a family friend, and so is Allie." I shot Clarice a grateful look.

"Oh, very well, then. All of you head back to the castle, and I will bring Mr. Potter here back to the hospital wing. You may visit him, but no more than five students at a time!" We all nodded and started back towards the castle.

After about a hundred meters of silence, Rose pulled my arm back lightly. I fell behind, and we waited for the others to get out of earshot.

"Allie, I'm sorry I've been such a git to you. I really forgave you last night, I was just being stubborn. Will you forgive me?"

I felt a grin spreading slowly across my face. "Of course, Rose. And I'm sorry for yelling at you at dinner. I know me being nice to Scorpius kinda seemed like betraying you."

"No, it's okay. As long as you don't make _me_ talk to him, I'm fine with you being friends. Actually, it might turn out okay. Maybe you can introduce me to Dimitri," she said, winking.

I hugged her. "Whenever you want." Heck, I could have introduced her then and there if she wanted. I had my friend back.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

We (Albus, Clarice, Rose, Professor Potter and I, that is) all crowded anxiously around James as he lay, still unconscious, in his bed in the hospital wing. The only noise was the occasional whimper from Lily or Hugo or a shush from Will as they stood outside the door because Madame Pomfrey only allowed five visitors at a time. She had been able to heal his broken arm and leg in a matter of minutes, but his cracked skull would heal more slowly.

"He'll have to stay overnight," she announced. "And he has a nasty little concussion too." Seeing the worried looks on everyone's faces, she quickly added, "But that'll all be healed up by tomorrow morning. In fact, he may even be able to go to dinner tonight IF and only if he rests a lot during the day." Albus and Professor Potter, who had been the most worried, visibly relaxed. "He'll wake up soon enough, just be patient." And with that, she bustled into her office, presumably to look at more dress robe catalogues.

And so we waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, around 11:30, just as Rose suggested that we go get some lunch, his eyelids fluttered open.

"James," breathed Professor Potter. "How're you feeling?"

He squeezed his eyes closed and then opened them wide. "Like I've fallen off my broomstick." His voice was hoarse and scratchy. His father transfigured a scrap sheet of parchment sitting on the nightstand into a cup. He then muttered, "_Aguamenti_,", pointing his wand inside the cup. A stream of water tumbled out, and he handed the cup to James, who had sat up a little. "Thanks." He took a sip, looking around the room. His eyes stopped on me. "Allie, you aren't hurt, were you?"

I smiled. "No, but you sure scared the heck out of me. How much do you remember?"

"I remember diving. And getting flipped off that darn broom." Only he didn't say darn.

"James! Language!" Professor said.

He grinned cheekily. "Sorry, Dad." The grin faded a little as he said tentatively, "How bad was I?"

Al rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Godric, James. Broken arm, broken leg, bloody nose, scrapes and bruises everywhere. All that's been healed, though. It's the cracked skull and concussion you have to worry about now."

James groaned. "So that's why my head feels like it's been trampled by a herd of hippogriffs. I don't have to stay overnight, do I?"

"'Fraid so, Jamesie," said Rose, grinning mischievously. "And didn't I hear McGonagall say tonight's the night that the students from Rolaires and Beauxbatons come? What a pity…"

Throughout her dialogue, James's eyes had been getting wider and wider. "WHAT?"

"James, relax," I said, laughing. "Madame Pomfrey says you can go to the feast if you rest up today." At this, I shoved a box of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum from one of his cousins into his lap. "Just eat some of this and rest so you can go to the feast." He rolled his eyes but grabbed two pieces, popped them into his mouth, and started chewing loudly.

"James, close your mouth. No one wants to see that," said Clarice, looking away from the big bubbly mess in his mouth.

"Clarice, when did you get here?" Except with his mouth full, it sounded more like "Cwawith, weh di you geh hee?"

"I've been here all along, James. Now close your mouth!" He grudgingly obliged.

Madame Pomfrey came bustling out of her office. "'Scuse me, coming through. Now, Mr. Potter, how are you feeling?" Even she looked slightly revolted by the gum wad. "For Merlin's sake, James, spit it out! One piece at a time." James rolled his eyes at Clarice's smirk and spat the gum out into the rubbish bin. "Thank you. Now I'm going to run a quick diagnostic spell on you. The rest of you shoo! Mr. Potter needs his rest." We all scurried away with quick, "Bye, James!"s.

As soon as we stepped out the door, Will, Lily, and Hugo came barreling past us.

"Wait! Madame Pomfrey doesn't…" but Rose trailed off. They were already inside, pestering Madame Pomfrey and James. "Oh well." She turned to me. "Come on, Al. Let's go back to the girls' dorm. You need to get out of those dirty clothes." We headed off to the Gryffindor tower while everyone else headed who knows where.

When we reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, Rose said, "Blibbering Humdingers," and she swung open with a cheery, "Goodness, girl! What happened to _you_?" I quickly climbed through into the common room and shut it behind me.

"Ugh," I said. All the adrenaline from the Quidditch pitch was gone, and I felt drained.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Fine, just tired. Let's go upstairs." We walked (well I trudged) up the stairs to the dormitory where I flopped down on my bed.

"C'mon Allie. You need to get changed; you're filthy." I picked myself up and walked over to the full length mirror that our roommate Arianne White had brought from home. Merlin, she was right. My jeans were covered with grass stains and dirt smears. Fortunately, these were my old ones. My shirt was slightly less dirty, but it had blood stains on the sleeve from James's nose. My hair- don't even get me started on my poor hair. It hung around my sordid face, lank, matted, and two shades of brown darker than it usually was. Rose laughed at my expression. "Didn't I tell you?"

I stuck my tongue out at her. "Well, I'm gonna take a shower. Oh, shoot. I don't think I have any clean clothes left."

"No problem, you can borrow some of mine."

"Thanks," I said gratefully, grabbing a towel and stepping into the bathroom.

A good half hour later, I stepped out of the shower and found a bundle of clothes neatly folded and placed on the counter. A folded piece of parchment lay on top. In Rose's cramped but neat handwriting, it read:

_Allie,_

_Gone to get some lunch. Here are your clothes; sorry I couldn't find anything else._

_See you when I get back!_

_Rose_

What did she mean, "Sorry I couldn't find anything else"? Well, only one way to find out. I put the note aside and unfolded the clothes. So it seemed Rose was alright with finding Muggle clothes. On top was a pair of well-worn blue jeans with a hole over the right knee. They were about my size, although Rose was a bit taller than me. Under that was a bra and underwear that I recognized as mine. The item on the very bottom was wine red, and I initially thought it was a shirt. But as I unfolded it, I realized it was a very short sundress. Far too short to wear alone. _Sorry I couldn't find anything else_. Oh. Well, it was either this or my dirty clothes.

I slipped it all on, and as I stood looking in the mirror, I realized it didn't look half as bad as I had feared it would. In fact, I thought as I twirled a bit on the floor that was still wet with condensation from my shower, I looked rather American. Like a Southerner or something. Yes, I really ought to add a straw hat and cowboy boots to this outfit. Giggling, I walked out of the bathroom.

Rose was sitting on the window seat with a red gingham blanket and a basket. When I walked in, she looked me up and down and cracked a grin. "Well, don't you look…"

"American," I finished for her, my smile matching hers.

"Yes, that's the word. C'mon, I got some food from the kitchens; we're having a picnic down by the lake. I've invited Lorcan, Lysander, and my cousin."

"Which one?"

"Roxanne."

"Right. Well, let's go!" I snatched the basket and skipped out of the dorm with it over my arm, everyone in the Common Room staring, and Rose laughing and running to catch up behind me.

We met up with Roxanne, Lorcan, and Lysander by a huge, shady oak tree at the lakeside. After the picnic blanket was spread out, Rose unpacked the food that disappeared very quickly between the five of us.

"So," said Lorcan, swallowing a bite of pie. "What exactly happened to James? We," here he motioned at his brother "heard that he was riding Hagrid's pet hippogriff and fell off!"

"Where in Merlin's beard did you hear that?" I asked, almost choking on my pumpkin juice.

"Hogwarts is notorious for rumors," explained Roxanne. "You'll never get the truth unless you hear it from the person the rumor is about. Sometimes not even then."

"Right," agreed Lysander. "So since James is in the hospital wing, why don't you tell us? According to the hippogriff story, you were riding a thestral behind him."

I groaned and put my hands over my face. "Where do these people get these barmy ideas?" They all snickered at my "innocence".

"Well, James invited me to go fly around the pitch with him for a bit- ON BROOMS, mind you…" I told them everything, although I scaled down a bit on my freaking out over him.

"So no hippogriffs OR thestrals?" said Lorcan when I finished.

"Nope," I said.

"Well, I suppose it wouldn't've been all too exciting with thestrals anyway. Mum says they're completely harmless. I can't see them, though."

"Why not?"

"Y'can only see them if you've seen death. Which I don't fancy doing, so I really don't mind not seeing them."

"Hmm," I said, not really listening.

"What's up, Allie? Daydreaming about Jamesie?" teased Roxanne. My head, which had been leaning back, snapped up.

"WHAT?"

She giggled at my reaction. "C'mon, Al. It's soooo obvious you fancy him!"

"No I- What- How- I don't fancy James! I mean, he's like a year older than me, and I barely know him. I just met him two weeks ago. At King's Cross. And just because we're kinda friends doesn't mean we're, like, going out or something. Can't guys and girls be just friends? Besides, he's my brother's mate; that'd be so weird to go out with him. It'd be like dating-"

"Allie, stop! It's okay, we all know you're in denial. Don't worry, we won't tell him. Your secret's safe with us. Although," she added, feigning thoughtfulness, "if you go on being so obvious, it might not matter whether we tell or not."

"Oh, go feed the Giant Squid," I said, throwing a few blades of grass at her. "Read my lips: I don't fancy him."

"Whatever," she said, still smiling and picking grass out of her hair calmly.

Glaring at the others, who were practically rolling in the grass laughing, I said, "Oh, grow up, you lot! Worse than the first years, honestly."

Lysander sat up, wiping his eyes. "Sure, Allie. Keep on denying it."

I sent a "see what you've done?" look at Roxanne, who smirked, and I rolled over and lay down.

"C'mon," she said to Lorcan and Lysander. "Let's go skip some stones into the lake." I heard the three of them get up and scramble around in the grass for rocks to throw. After a minute or so, the sound of splashing and taunts could be heard.

"So, Allie," said Rose. I sat up. "Now that you've seen Dimitri, what do you think?"

I smiled. Rose was still obsessed. "Pretty good-looking, I'd say. But something about him seems kinda off."

"What, because he's from Durmstrang?"

"No. It's just- I dunno how to describe it. I just don't feel comfortable around him. He's a bit intimidating, to be honest."

"Oh, it's just because you don't know him well yet," she said, waving her hand as if swatting off a fly.

"Yeah, probably," I said, absentmindedly braiding a few blades of grass together. Something told me Rose was right.

Rose, Roxanne, and I were in our dorm getting ready for the welcome feast for Rolaires and Beauxbatons. I, of course, had nothing else to wear, so I was wearing my cute little American outfit. Hopefully the Rolaires kids wouldn't laugh at me.

Instead of working on my own outfit, I helped Rose and Roxanne with theirs. Neither of them, being Weasleys and therefore redheads, could wear red or orange without horrible clashes ensuing, so we paired a turquoise gypsy-style shirt with brown stitching around the collar with dark skinny jeans for Roxanne. For Rose, a deep purple babydoll was matched with another pair of Roxanne's skinny jeans. We'd heard those were very popular in the States.

"Well, girls, I must say that we look Ah-maz-ing!" said Rose proudly as we posed before the mirror. "Let's go wow some hot American boys!" Laughing, we headed downstairs into the stream of students headed for the Great Hall.

As we approached the Gryffindor table, I spotted a bunch of Weasleys, Will, Lily, and…James!

"James!" I said as we sat down. "How're you feeling?"

He smiled ruefully. "Bit dizzy, but don't tell Madame Pomfrey."

Before I could even say hello to Will, Professor McGonagall's voice, aided by a _Sonorus_ charm, boomed over the hall. "ATTENTION, STUDENTS!" The chatter of the hall quickly ceased. "THE STUDENTS OF THE SCHOOLS OF ROLAIRES AND BEAUXBATONS WILL BE ARRIVING MOMENTARILY. I EXPECT YOU ALL ON YOUR BEST BEHAVIOR, AND YOU WILL DO YOUR BEST TO WELCOME OUR GUESTS. THANK YOU."

Even though she had sat down and removed the charm, the hall remained silent, the tension tangible as everyone waited for the foreign schools to arrive. A few hushed whispers were the only sound to be heard.

Just then, the doors of the Great Hall snapped open and every head turned. A VERY tall (and by very tall I mean Hagrid tall) woman strode in followed by an entourage of boys and girls all in pale blue silk uniforms. They looked very cold; after all, winter here isn't excactly known for being mild.

"THE BEAUXBATONS ACADEMY OF MAGIC!" boomed McGonagall. We all applauded as they marched after the giant lady who was presumably their headmistress. Every person at every table scooted over to make room for the newcomers. I spotted a girl whose golden blonde hair fell in waves to a little bit past her chin. She appeared to be looking for a place to sit. I squeezed into Rose, pushing her until she moved over and motioned for the girl to come sit next to me. She smiled a little bit shyly.

"Charlotte Dupont."

"Allie Lancaster. Nice to meet you."

"And you."

At the front of the hall, I spotted Professor McGonagall and the Beauxbatons headmistress seated next to each other, talking quietly. Oddly, Hagrid kept stealing glances at the giant lady. Maybe he had never seen someone else who was actually his size before.

As everyone started to chat with the foreign students, the doors opened wide again, bringing another unnatural silence to the hall. A very tan man with black, perfectly styled hair walked in. He wore Muggle clothes, as did his students.

"THE ROLAIRES INSTITUTE OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY!" I noticed that the Americans actually looked prepared for the colder weather. They marched in after the tanned man and started looking for seats. This time it was Rose who shoved me into Charlotte, who promptly fell over. I glared at Rose and helped Charlotte up as a Rolaires girl with perfectly straightened, chestnut brown hair slid onto the bench next to Rose.

McGonagall began to speak again. "Welcome, students of Beauxbatons and Rolaires. We welcome you to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We hope you will enjoy your stay, and remember, everyone, this exchange program is meant to help us form bonds of friendship with other schools of magic. Please act accordingly in the following weeks. Thank you, and enjoy the feast." She clapped twice and every plate filled with food. The talking started up again, this time joined by the sound of scraping forks and clinking cups.

"So, how old are you, Charlotte?" I said, turning to face her.

"I am nearly fourteen," she said, her words touched by a heavy French accent. "What about you?"

"Same," I said, taking a sip of pumpkin juice. "So you're a third year?"

"We do not haff years at Beauxbatons," she said. "But eef I went to 'ogwarts, zen yes, I would be a third year."

Her accent intrigued me, but I didn't want to be rude by asking about it. After all, all the Beauxbatons students had accents. "Cool. Hey, let me introduce you to some of my friends. This is James, Roxanne, Rose, my brother Will, Lily, Fred, Lorcan, Lysander… um, well, I'm kind of new this year, I don't really know everyone's names yet." When I said their names, the aforementioned looked up and smiled at Charlotte. She looked rather overwhelmed.

"Are zey all related?"

"The redheads are all Weasleys, James and Lily are Potters, and Lorcan and Lysander are Scamanders. The Potters and Weasleys are all related as well."

Her mouth formed a perfect "O". "You don't mean _ze_ Weasleys and Potters? As een Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and 'ermione Granger? And Lovegood like Rolf Scamander?"

I smiled, enjoying her reaction. "The very same."

Her mouth snapped shut as she realized she was gaping. "Wow. You 'ave famous friends."

Will interrupted. "Except me. I'm just the older brother." Here he winked.

I rolled my eyes. "Charlotte, this is my brother, William Lancaster. Will, this is Charlotte Dupont."

Will tossed his hair to the side (do all boys do that?) and stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Charlotte."

Her pale cheeks turned slightly pink. "Ze same to you, Will. You may call me Lottie; everyone else does."

Godric, was my new friend hitting on my brother? And even worse, did he like her as well? Unwilling to think of such vulgar things, I turned around to see how Rose and the Rolaires girl were getting along.

Fabulously, it turned out. She introduced me to the girl, whose name was Kailey. As we talked, I realized that I hadn't liked her when I first saw her. Maybe it was the perfect hair, or the immaculate makeup. Or maybe I just thought she was stealing my best friend. But she turned out to be really nice, and hilarious to boot. We finished dinner and I walked upstairs with Rose, Roxanne, Charlotte (who was going on about how _nice_ my brother was), and Kailey. We found that since they had chosen to eat at our table, our dorm had expanded to accommodate two more people. None of us worried about sleep. Instead, we stayed up through the night, exchanging stories and trying to mimic each others' accents. I guess McGonagall was right about this whole foreign exchange thing after all.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Hey, look guys! There's a Hogsmeade trip this weekend!" yelled Rose over her shoulder as she examined the bulletin board. It was Wednesday night, and the rest of us (me, Charlotte, and Kailey, that is) were sitting in the fluffy chairs by the fire working on homework. In the past week, I had learned several things about our little foreign friends. First: they did not particularly appreciate being called "our little foreign friends". Second: any exterior signs of timidity that Charlotte had initially shown were LONG gone. In fact, she was so exuberant and confident and overall outgoing that I wondered how I'd ever thought that she was shy. And third: neither of them knew what Hogsmeade was.

"What ees Hogsmeade?" asked Charlotte, looking up from the homework that she was undoubtedly acing. "Some sort of amusement park?" I could see Rose trying to stifle a snicker.

"Um, not exactly. It's actually a village a few miles out. You can go if you have a permission slip."

"What do you do there?" asked Kailey, looking interested.

"Oh, pretty much just hang around the shops or get some butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks or whatever. Big romantic opportunity." Here she waggled her eyebrows at Charlotte, looking purposefully at my brother, who was sitting across the room. Charlotte promptly turned a delicate shade of pink. It was my turn to cover up giggles. Each obviously really liked the other, but both were completely oblivious. I'd mostly gotten over my reservations about the weirdness of my friend liking my brother. And him liking her back.

"Anyway," she continued, "even if you don't go with a date it should be loads of fun. This'll be all of our first times; third year's the youngest they allow."

I smiled. "Didn't your uncle say he snuck into Hogsmeade in third year because the Muggles- I mean his aunt and uncle- wouldn't sign his form?"

Rose nodded enthusiastically. "Used his Invisibility Cloak and a secret passage into the Honeydukes cellar. But he won't tell us where it is."

Charlotte and Kailey were listening eagerly. Both loved hearing stories about the famous Harry Potter and his friends.

"He did give James the cloak. Of course, James being the pig-headed prat that he is, he won't share with any of us except in 'dire need', whatever that's supposed to mean." She gave a little laugh.

"You know what?" I said, sitting up straight in my chair. "Let's explore the castle. We could try and find your uncle's secret passage to Hogsmeade!"

Charlotte's eyes lit up. "Ooh, yes, let's! We can be, how do you say, ze spiers!"

Kailey nodded in agreement. "This'll be fun! Hogwarts is so much cooler than Rolaires; our building's so modern."

"Oh no," I said. "Rose has that look on her face again." She looked positively demonic.

Grinning, she said, "I say we get James's Invisibility Cloak. That way Filch and that horrid cat of his won't catch us."

"Isn't that called stealing?"

"Technically, we're family, so it's borrowing."

"Okay, when you put it that way…"

Kailey piped up. "But how're we supposed to get up to the boys' dorms? Didn't you say the staircases turn into slides or something?"

Everyone was silent for a moment, thinking. Then all of a sudden, Charlotte said, "Brooms."

"_Wha_?"

"Brooms. We could fly up on brooms."

Rose stared. "Charlotte, you're a genius!"

She blushed and smiled. "Thank you."

"No, thank _you_! C'mon, we've got to get down to the broom shed before it gets dark! And someone needs to distract James…" She eyed me.

"What? Why me? You're his cousin!"

"Because he would suspect something if I went just to talk to him. I never do that. And he knows Charlotte only as your brother's 'friend'." Here she inserted air quotes. "As for Kailey, well, I don't know if he even knows that she exists. No offense." Kailey shrugged.

I had a feeling that Rose had more reasons than she was letting on, but I decided not to bother asking. "Okay. Fine."

She continued explaining her plan. "Charlotte, Kailey, you two are going to come with me to get the brooms. We'll use mine and Will's. Al, you don't think he'll mind, do you?"

I shrugged. "Not if he doesn't know."

"Alright then. I just need to make a quick stop by the Ravenclaw tower and we'll be good to go."

"Ravenclaw?"

"Yes, I need to check something with Al. I mean, not you Al, Albus Al."

"That makes sense."

"Shut up." But she smiled as she said it. "You lot wait here until I get back, okay?"

"Hurry," said Kailey. "It's getting dark out."

About ten minutes later, she was back. "Okay. James is in detention with McGonagall."

I rolled my eyes. "How did he manage to get detention this time?"

"From what Albus said, he tried to spike some Slytherin's drink with love potion from WWW. Unfortunately, the bloke figured it out and reported it to Slughorn, who guessed that it was James and reported it to McGonagall."

I laughed outright. "That is so James."

She nodded. "So you're just going to wait here until he comes in and then you'll have to distract him." She thought for a moment. "Actually, you're going to have to distract the whole Common Room. How else are we going to get brooms in here and fly up to the boys' dorms with everyone watching?"

I goggled at her. "How the heck am I supposed to distract the whole Common Room?"

"I don't know; you're smart. Think of something." Ugh. Typical Rose.

She grinned. "Don't give me that look! Okay girls; let's get this show on the road. Have _fun_, Allie!" I stuck my tongue out at her. She just smiled again and motioned for Charlotte and Kailey to follow her out the portrait hole.

Okay. James would probably go talk to Will when he got back, so I headed for the circle of chairs where Will sat with two Weasleys, Fred and Louis. I think.

"Hey Will," I said, plopping into the chair next to him.

"Hey Allie," he said, looking at me suspiciously. "What do you need?"

"Nothing!" I said, putting on an innocent façade. "Is a sister not allowed to come talk to her brother without him assuming she have an ulterior motive?"

"Sure, a normal sister's allowed, but knowing you, you _do_ have an ulterior motive."

I put a hand to my heart. "William Lancaster, I am shocked! Don't you trust me?"

He laughed. "No."

I smiled and turned to the Weasleys. "Fred and Louis, right?" They nodded. Now I remembered that Louis was the one who had strawberry blonde hair and no freckles on account of his French mother. Fred was Roxanne's sister, and he looked quite a bit like her with his dark hair and hazel eyes. I vaguely remembered that they had been James's partners in crime on the train. "Sorry. I'm not that great at keeping everyone straight."

Louis smiled. "'S okay. Hardly anyone bothers; it's nice of you to try."

"So, you done with homework?" Will asked.

"Almost. I've just got Charms left. I'm supposed to practice my Expelliarmus, couldn't quite get it in class." I eyed each of them teasingly. "Any volunteers?" All three visibly shrank back as I snickered.

"You know what?" said Will. "Do it on me." He held his arms out. "Hit me with your best shot." I did so, and he blinked. "Er, nothing happened."

I groaned. "See? This is exactly what happened in class! It was supposed to be a review, but noooo, of course I would have a block on this."

From behind me, a voice said, "That's because you're not doing the movement right."

I whipped my head around, a few strands of hair catching me in the face. "James?"

He grinned lazily. "Just got finished with McGonagall's detention. What're you lot up to?"

"Other than criticizing my Expelliarmus?"

He laughed. "Here, let me help you." He dropped his books onto the chair next to me and pulled out his wand.

"Nuh-uh. Not on me. Do it to Will; he already volunteered." Will glared at me. I simply smirked.

"_Expelliarmus!_" His wand flew out of his hand, and James caught it neatly. "See? You've got to lessen up on the flourishes and get to the basic movement. Here." He tossed Will's wand back to him and then grabbed my wrist, which suddenly burned like the Great Fire of London. "An all-around twist, then flick. And make sure your aim is right." He demonstrated again. "Now you try." He released my wrist and stepped back. "Go ahead."

"Okay," I said reluctantly. "_Expelliarmus!_" Twist and flick. His wand wiggled a bit but stayed in his hand. I sighed. "See? I'm hopeless!"

"Nah, you just need practice," said James.

"Yeah," said Will. "Why don't you have a go on Fred and Louis? They haven't been victims- I mean they haven't, uh, been subjects yet." I glared at Will. "What?"

"Alright, I'll be a brave Gryffindor." said Fred. He stood up.

"Honestly, it's just a disarming charm! And I haven't even gotten it right yet!" Fred just smirked. Oh, I'd show him. "_EXPELLIARMUS!_" Not only did his wand go flying, but he also stumbled backwards a few steps, tripped over a chair, and landed flat on his rear end.

He got up, brushing himself off. "JUST a disarming charm?" But no one was really listening to him.

"Wow, Al! That was brilliant!" said Will, giving me a tight squeeze. "Knew you could do it."

James pouted. "I was the one who helped show her how to do it! Don't I get a hug?" I grinned and obliged. Mmm, he did smell nice…

"What about me?" yelled Fred. "I was the one who actually got disarmed!" Laughing, I gave him a hug too.

"Yay, now I'm finished with homework!"

"Yay," said Fred half-heartedly. I rolled my eyes.

"Who wants to play Truth or Dare?"

"Aren't we a bit old to play that game?" said Louis.

"'Course not. Gather round, Will can go first."

Will looked at me. "You're not serious."

"Sure I am. Go ahead, say it."

He grumbled. "Fred, truth or dare?"

"Dare. I'm still being a brave Gryffindor." I snickered.

"Alright… I dare you to tell Filch that someone's set off some Dungbombs in the seventh floor corridor, make him walk all the way up, and then have him chase you all the way back to the Common Room."

Fred grinned. "On it." He headed for the portrait hole.

"My turn," I announced. "James, truth or dare?"

"Dare."

"I dare you to really set off some Dungbombs in the Common Room."

"What?"

"Are you refusing the dare?"

"Of course not! But what about us? Those things really smell bad, you know."

"Bubblehead Charm," said Will.

"What?" I said, figuring it was one of those things I had missed out on from living in the Muggle world.

"Oh, that's brilliant, Will! Merlin, I can't believe I didn't think of that." He then turned to me. "The Bubblehead Charm creates a pocket of fresh air around your head.

"Cool! Who's got the Dungbombs, then?"

"That would be me," said Louis. "Bought a ton last time I went to WWW."

"Hang on. What exactly is WWW?" Another thing I had missed out on, probably.

"It stands for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. It's my Uncle George's store," started James.

"My dad," said Fred proudly.

"Yeah. It's like a joke shop; you can buy all sorts of prank equipment. All invented by Uncle George and Uncle Fred. They were twins. But Uncle Fred- well, he was killed in the Battle of Hogwarts."

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" I said. I couldn't imagine losing Will, much less a twin.

"It's fine. Anyway, it's really cool. We all went before school to stock up."

Just then, I saw three heads poking out of the portrait hole: one red, one blonde, and one brunette. The girls were back with the broomsticks.

I flashed them a "wait" sign behind my back. "Hey, Louis, why don't you go get the Dungbombs and we can go ahead and do the charm."

"Sure," he said, heading up the stairs to the boys' dorm.

"Okay, I'll do it," said Will. It seemed to be a moderately hard charm, probably too difficult for a third year. "Done."

I didn't feel any different, but when I tried to touch my head, I felt an invisible barrier stop my hand about a foot away.

Louis arrived with the Dungbombs, and Will performed the charm on him.

"Okay," said Louis. "I've put a trigger on every bomb so that they'll all go off when I detonate them with this." Here he lifted some sort of contraption. "Everyone take one Dungbomb and put it somewhere in the room. Try and spread them out."

I took mine and placed it underneath an occupied chair, resisting the urge to laugh evilly.

When we had all met back at our original chairs, Louis pulled out the detonator, grinning uncharacteristically wickedly. "Ready?"

"Yeah!" He pushed the button.

Every bomb in the room exploded simultaneously, releasing greenish brown gases and what I guessed was an awful smell. All the people in the Common Room began to panic, gagging and trying to run for the exit. The boys were laughing too hard to notice, but I felt the wind from someone rushing by and heard a girl's voice with a French accent whisper in my ear, "Thanks, Allie!" Then a few minutes later, just as the smoke began to clear, someone whooshed past me again, presumably on a broom, and whispered, "Meet us outside the portrait hole." After making sure that the boys were too busy congratulating themselves to pay me any attention, I slipped through the portrait hole and a hand slapped over my mouth.

My scream was muffled by the hand until I heard Rose hiss, "It's me, you moron. Stuff it!" She then released me and smiled. "It worked! We got it!" She held up a great fold of silver-ish, liquid-looking fabric.

"Wow… it's gorgeous," I breathed. "And it really works?"

Rose shook it out and dropped it over her head. I nearly screamed again as she completely disappeared. She pulled it off with a _whoosh _and reappeared.

"That's WICKED!" I said. "Great work, guys!"

Charlotte and Kailey came to stand next to Rose. Charlotte said, "Thanks. You deed a good job of _deestracteeng_ James." I aimed a playful slap at her head, and she ducked, smiling widely.

"C'mon. Uncle Harry may not have told us where it is, but I think he wanted us to try and find it. He told us the password's Dissendium, and it's in some sort of statue."

"Great," said Kailey. "Let's do this!"

As it turned out, it was rather difficult to fit four thirteen-going-on-fourteen-year-old girls under the Cloak, so we all had to squish together and shuffle along. We were all watching our feet and trying not to trip when we ran into something. More like someone. Two Slytherin someones, to be exact.

"Whoa!" yelled Scorpius as he and Dimitri tumbled to the ground. "What was that?"

"Watch it!" hissed Rose as I stumbled onto her toe. She proceeded to bump into Kailey, who tripped over the hem of the robe and sent us all sprawling, fully visible again.

"What the-" Scorpius murmured, looking at each of us in turn. "What are you doing here?"

"More like what are you doing here!" said Rose, suddenly hostile. "This is the Gryffindor Tower!"

"Thank you, Captain Obvious."

"You're welcome, Lieutenant Sarcasm."

"Guys! Stop it. It's after hours, neither of us want to get caught, right? So let's just pretend we never saw each other and go along our merry ways. Okay?" That's me, always the peacemaker.

"Is that an Invisibility Cloak?" said Dimitri, staring at the Cloak in awe and effectively breaking some of the tension.

"Yes," I said, even while Rose pinched me, warning me not to say anything.

"Vere did you get it from?" he asked, still staring.

Rose pinched me hard. "Uh, I don't know. It's, um, a friend's."

"Oh," he said, looking rather disappointed. "Vell, I suppose ve'll just go…" He started to get up, pulling Scorpius with him.

"Hold up," said Rose, standing up quickly. Her face was set in a fierce scowl, and I had a feeling that whatever was about to happen, it wouldn't end well. "You still haven't told us why you were in Gryffindor Tower."

"Don't see how it's your business, Weasley," said Scorpius, glaring at her.

"Oh, trust me Malfoy, it's definitely my business. Maybe you were planning something against the Gryffindors."

His face became positively terrifying as he closed the distance between them. He now stood about two inches from her face. "You know, you really do expect the worst out of me. Did it ever cross your brilliant Gryffindor mind that maybe I'm not always the bad guy? Just because of my father and my house, everyone always assumes I have some sort of horrible, evil motive. Maybe if you would just bother to have a decent, civilized conversation with me-"

Rose interrupted. "Have you ever given me a _chance_ to have a civilized conversation? Seems like every time you see me you try to insult me. And you still haven't said what you're doing here."

"For your information, we were here running an errand for McGonagall. I had detention with her tonight. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to finish that errand before I get in even more trouble." He pushed past Rose and stalked off towards the Common Room. It was officially the longest speech I'd ever heard him make.

Rose recovered quickest. "Come on, guys. Let's go." The rest of us stood up, Kailey grabbing the Cloak.

We were halfway down the hall when someone called, "Vait." We all turned around.

"I am sorry that that had to happen. It is kind of a touchy subject for him."

"Yeah, I've noticed. Thanks, though," I said, starting to follow Rose and the others again.

"Allie," he called, stopping me again. I motioned for the others to go on without me. They shrugged, but obliged.

"Um, you know about the Hogsmeade trip this veekend?"

"Yes," I said. This could not be going where I thought it was. It simply couldn't.

"I vas vondering, vould you like to go vith me?"

I'm sure I looked quite the idiot, standing there with my mouth slightly open and eyes as big as saucers.

"Sure," I said. "I'd love to." Oh, Rose was going to kill me.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

As it turned out, I wasn't particularly good at guessing Rose's reactions. She didn't blow up like with the Scorpius thing. She didn't yell. She didn't even look very annoyed.

She just said, "Congratulations, Allie! Now c'mon, don't you guys still want to explore?"

"Yeah, but… I mean not that I want you to be, but why aren't you mad?"

She shrugged indifferently. "I guess I wasn't really that into him. You know, just thought he was good-looking. Not like I had a claim on him or anything. Besides, I really don't want to fight." Here she flashed a small smile.

I smiled back. "Thanks. Will you three help me with an outfit, then? You know I'm horrible with fashion."

"Definitely!" said Kailey. "Ooh, this'll be fun!"

"Yeah, it will. Now back under the Cloak. And this time, watch for people coming our way." We all crouched back under it and started shuffling along again.

"Any guesses to where it'll be?" I whispered.

From beside me, Rose said, "Well, we know it's in a statue of some sort. The only thing I can think of doing is going up to every statue in the castle and saying the password."

"Zat weel take forever!" said Charlotte. "Zere must be a bettair way."

"Not that I can think of," said Kailey. "We might as well start with the first floor corridor and work our way up."

By the time we had gone up to every statue on the first floor and said "Dissendium", it was 10:30.

"Shouldn't we get back?" I asked. "We still have classes tomorrow."

Rose sighed. "I suppose. C'mon, we'll head back to the Common Room."

"Can we do this again sometime?" whispered Kailey as we started back. "I really want to find that secret passage."

"Yeah," said Rose. "We can do the second floor next time." We walked in silence for the rest of the way back, stopping every once in a while as a prefect came across our path. Right outside the portrait hole, we slipped the Cloak off, and Kailey stuffed it in her robes (we figured she was least likely to be questioned by James).

"Try not to attract attention coming in," Rose muttered. And I did try, honestly. But being the slightly-annoying-overprotective brother that he is, Will noticed us just coming in. He frowned and started towards us.

"Shoot," I muttered. "Guys, think of a cover story. Fast." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kailey struggling to compose her face into an innocent mask.

"Where have you four been? It's way past curfew."

I rolled my eyes. "Will, you don't get to be a prefect 'til next year. Give it a rest."

That made him frown even more. "I'm serious, Allie." Great. I was so busted.

"Oh, eet ees alright, Will. I had a question about Defense Against ze Dark Arts 'omework so I asked zem to come with me to ask Professor Potter about eet." She gave him a sweet smile.

He looked rather flustered. "Oh. Right. Nev-never mind, then." I could see his cheeks starting to go red. "I-I'll, uh, just see you later then, Lottie." He turned quickly and walked away, leaving me, Rose, and Kailey to burst into laughter while Charlotte blushed furiously.

"Shut up," she said, crossing her arms huffily.

We didn't.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

It wasn't until Friday that Will once again approached me with a face that inevitably meant trouble. For me.

I was just coming out of History of Magic, half-asleep, (that room always did that to me) when I spotted his toffee-colored hair bobbing over the crowd of shorter third years.

Of course, it wasn't as though I hadn't been expecting it. It was really only a matter of time before he found out.

"Allie," he began, planting himself in my path.

"Will," I said pleasantly, trying to sidestep around him to no avail.

"Allie, we need to talk," he said, his voice sickly sweet.

I gave up trying to escape and leaned against the wall with a groan. "Will, can't we do this later?"

He ignored my complaints. "Allie, is it true or is it not true that you're going to Hogsmeade tomorrow with a bloke from Durmstrang?"

"It is true, and his name is Dimitri Ivanov for your information. Can I go now? I'm going to be late for Defense against the Dark Arts."

"Professor Potter likes you. He won't care if you're a little late." I crossed my arms and glared at him. "He won't! Now about that Dimitri… Allison Brooke Lancaster, what were you thinking? He's from bloody Durmstrang!"

"Godric, Will, no need to curse," I muttered. "And so what if he's from Durmstrang? It's not like I don't know him at all. How daft do you think I am, honestly?"

"You're not daft, but you're making a stupid choice!"

"Will, my social life really isn't your business. And I'm thirteen going on fourteen, for goodness sake. It's not at all serious." He opened his mouth to speak again. "Look, Will. Just let me get to class. We can talk more later."

He scowled ferociously, but allowed me to pass.

Predictably, my day only went downhill from there.

First of all, Professor Potter didn't mind that I was a minute or two late, but he did pull a pop quiz, the material of which I had completely neglected to study. I was positive I had received a T. Then, I had to take the long way to Herbology in order to avoid Will, earning myself a seat in the back row when I finally reached the greenhouse, breathless, because everywhere else was full. And to top that all off, Lily and Hugo got into an argument that evolved into a mini-food fight at dinner, and a buttery potato skin got in my hair. Of course, they both apologized profusely, but the damage was done.

All in all, one of my worse days at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

It wasn't until that night in the dorm that things started to look up. I had just finished washing the potato out of my hair and pulled on my pajamas when Rose, Kailey, and Charlotte, who had been talking quietly on Rose's bed, got up simultaneously and stood in a line in front of me, looking like soldiers in pajamas.

"Uh, guys, I kinda need to get to my bed…"

Rose didn't let me finish. "No, you don't. You need to pick an outfit."

"I can do it tomorrow." I tried to sidestep her (I really needed to work on that skill what with all the recent use), but Charlotte got in my way, grinning uncharacteristically mischievously.

"Oh no, you cannot. We are doing eet tonight."

I groaned, seeing that they weren't going to back down. "Fine. But let's make it quick; I want to get to sleep."

Kailey squealed excitedly. This was definitely her department. "Okay. So you'll probably want to borrow clothes from us. No offense."

"None taken."

"Good then. Let's see… we don't wanna go too fancy, 'cause that'll make him nervous. But not too casual either; he'll think you don't care enough to pick a decent outfit. Let's go with a casual dress, then." She motioned for Rose to get some from her trunk, as she was closest to my size. When she had procured a few, she brought them back for inspection, laying them on my bed.

"We definitely want something dark for you," continued Kailey. "It contrasts nicely with your complexion… Rose. Charlotte. The blue one or the black one?"

They spoke together. "Blue."

Kailey tossed the blue dress into my arms "Try it on," commanded Kailey, "and then come out and show us." She gave me a light shove towards the bathroom. "Hurry up!"

The dress was deep blue with small floral print and ruffles on the shoulders. The girls informed me that it looked fantastic, and they added a thin grey cardigan and a pretty copper necklace of Charlotte's. Looking back, I really ought to have thanked them. Without their interference, I would have gone in my own jeans and a t-shirt.

And so I went to bed, barely even feeling nervous for my first date.

Not so much in the morning.

At seven o' clock sharp, I woke up and sat bolt upright in bed, anxiety eating away at my insides. In need of some advice, I slipped out of bed and gave Rose's bed curtains a little tug, revealing only her head. With her face smooth and peaceful in sleep and her fiery hair spread out across her pillow like a halo, I almost felt bad for waking her up. Almost.

"Rose," I whispered, gently shaking her shoulder.

She showed no sign of waking up.

"Rose," I said a little louder, increasing the shaking.

She groaned a little bit, her brow creasing.

"Rose." I considered conjuring some water to pour on her head.

"ROSE!" I all but screamed her name, giving her shoulders an extra hard shake. Her eyes, intense and blue, popped open.

"I am awake. If you know what's best for you, you will stay away from me for a minimum of five minutes," she said through clenched teeth. Then she closed her eyes again. Sheesh. Definitely not a morning person.

After the prescribed five minutes, which I spent curled up on the window seat, Rose swished back her curtains and stepped out, stretching. "Good morning"

"Yeah. It's fantastic." Note the sarcasm.

She blinked at me sleepily. "How is it not a good morning? It's absolutely gorgeous outside, we're going to Hogsmeade for the first time ever, you have your date with Di- Ohhh, you have your date with Dimitri."

"Rose, I'm so scared. What if I completely embarrass myself?"

She joined me in the window seat, now fully alert.

"You won't. And if you do, it doesn't matter. If he's right for you, he won't care. If he's not, well, at least you'll know."

I gave a small smile. "Thanks, Rose. I don't even know why I'm so nervous. It's not like I even really fancy him that much. He still seems a bit intimidating to me."

Rose rolled her eyes, twisting a strand of hair around her finger. "Godric Al, get over it! Just because he's from Durmstrang doesn't mean he's a bad guy."

"I know that! In fact, that's pretty much what I said to Will yesterday. Oh, bugger, he's going to be so annoyed with me… He's not too keen on the idea of me going with Dimitri."

Rose just grinned and said, "Well that's your problem. I can't do anything about your brother. Hang on…" She broke off, an evil glint coming to her eye. "I know who can, though." She looked meaningfully to the bed in which I knew Charlotte was sleeping.

"Oh no," I said. "You're not thinking of…"

"Oh yes," she said, only a millimeter short of cackling like… well, a witch. "We're going to get your brother and Charlotte together."

Any nerves that Rose had calmed immediately started acting up again as soon as we reached the Great Hall. I sat as far as I possibly could from Will, as I could all but feel the waves of animosity and annoyance rolling off of him like heat. Instead, I sat between Charlotte and Rose and across from Kailey, all of whom proceeded to try to get me to eat something. I managed some toast and pumpkin juice, but refused their offers of bacon and fruit crepes.

"Allie. Earth to Allie!"

For what must have been the millionth time, James's voice that snapped me back into reality.

"Huh? Oh, sorry James. Run that past me again?"

James rolled his eyes. "I asked if it was true that you're going to Hogsmeade with Malfoy's Durmstrang friend."

"Will told you, didn't he?" When he didn't respond, I continued. "Yes, it's true. His name's Dimitri." Seeing the look on his face, I added, "But it's not like it's serious or anything."

"What, don't you like me anymore?"

I blushed more than I would have liked. "Sure I do, James. I just don't think Will would approve of our relationship."

He snickered, glancing at Will and imitating his scowl. "Now, Allie, as your older brother by an entire year, I absolutely forbid you to go with this boy. Now you either find a decent boy, go alone, or run along and join the convent." He frowned comically, but I detected a hint of hurt in his eyes. Deciding to try and ignore it, I laughed.

"Brilliant! You sound exactly like him."

"Why thank you. Your brother, however, doesn't seem to be enjoying it as much as you." Sure enough, when I snuck a glance in his direction, his face was forcedly neutral, but he stabbed his eggs with a vengeance.

I just glared at him and said, "He'll get over it."

"Look, Al, don't you think he kinda has a point, though? I mean, you barely know him, and, let's face it. Durmstrang has had a reputation for producing Dark wizards since long before we were even born."

I groaned. "Now you're really turning into him."

He put his hands up in surrender. "All I'm asking is for you to be careful."

"Am I ever anything but?"

He rolled his eyes and returned to his breakfast.

"Oh sweet Merlin," said Kailey under her breath. If I hadn't been sitting so close to her, I wouldn't have noticed that she was speaking at all; her lips barely moved and she kept her eyes on her glass of milk. "Don't look now, but Malfoy's headed this way."

"Huh?" I said, sounding super intelligent the way I always do. Note sarcasm.

"Yeah, I dunno," she muttered.

"Hey Allie," came his drawling voice from behind my chair. I got major de ja vu of the first time we had met.

"Hey Scorpius," I said, turning around. "Oh, you haven't met my friends yet, have you? Well, not formally anyway. This is Kailey Hoskin, and this is Charlotte DuPont, and, er, you know Rose." Boy, did he ever. "Kails, Charlotte, this is Scorpius Malfoy."

"Hi Scorpius," they said together. He smiled politely.

"Anyway, did you need something?"

"Yeah, actually. I just wanted to tell you that you don't deserve Dimitri, and if you make one wrong move I'll make your life miserable."

"What?"

"Kidding!" he said, chuckling. "Lighten up."

I smiled. "Sorry. Kinda nervous."

"Relax; you'll be fine. He really likes you."

"Thanks."

"Sure," he said. In my peripheral, I could see Rose staring him down, her eyes glinting dangerously, like ripples in the lake on a sunny day.

"So, are you going with anyone?" I spoke quickly, trying to distract her.

"No, not this time." He smiled briefly, and oddly enough I saw his gaze flicker to Rose. Then I saw Rose's glare steadily grow more intense and figured he was probably getting a little bit intimidated. Her fists were clenched, knuckles white, but there was a strange blush creeping up her cheeks.

"Hey, Scorp! C'mere!" a boy's voice hollered from the Slytherin table.

"Well, I'll see you all later," he said, starting towards his friend.

"See ya," said Charlotte, Kailey and I simultaneously. Rose just continued glaring.

"You know, you could give it a rest," I said, nudging her gently.

She turned her glower on me. "No, I couldn't. He's an arrogant prejudiced moron, and I don't see why you're even friends with him. Are you blind or something?"

"Hey, relax," said Kailey, placing a hand on Rose's shoulder. "Remember, he was the one who came over here. Anyway, we can't have you all worked up before our first Hogsmeade visit!"

Rose took a deep breath and let it out with a whoosh. "Fine. Sorry I snapped at you, Allie."

"'S'okay."

She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again she smiled. "Looks like people are starting to leave. Everybody got their forms?" We all nodded. "C'mon, then. Filch's checking us off at the door."

We all got through with only minor threats from the irritable caretaker. Charlotte actually skipped across the grass, basking in the sunlight. I couldn't help but grin. The corners of Rose's mouth began to turn up despite her attempts to remain cross.

"Hey, Al," said Kailey, poking me. "Dimitri's up ahead. See, with those Durmstrang kids? Come on, let's go catch up."

"Uh, don't you think we should give him some time with his friends? He seems kinda- HEY!" Rose and Kailey had taken hold of my arms and started dragging me down the hill.

We must have made a lot of noise as we approached, because Dimitri turned around just as we reached him.

"Hey," I said breathlessly. I shook my arms out of the grasp of Rose and Kailey. Charlotte stood behind them, clearly amused by the situation.

"Hello," he said, smiling in a way that I figured was enthusiastic for him. "You look very nice."

"Thanks," I said, fiddling with my jacket zipper. "Um, so do you." He wore very dark jeans, a white t-shirt that had words in some foreign language, and a tan leather jacket. In other words, HOT.

He turned to his friends, two boys and one girl. "Stefan, Cristian, Nadia, you can go on vithout me." They nodded and continued towards Hogsmeade. The guy he called Cristian looked back and smiled at me. I smiled back.

"Vait. This is Rose, and these are…"

"Charlotte DuPont and Kailey Hoskin," I finished for him, pointing at each one in turn.

"Pleasure to meet you," he said.

"Same," they both replied.

"C'mon," said Rose, grabbing Charlotte and Kailey. "Let's go on down as well." Taking the hint, the others followed Rose, leaving me alone with Dimitri.

"Vy don't ve head down too?" he said.

"Sure."

"So," he said as we walked. "Tell me about yourself. I know almost nothing about you."

"Um, my full name is Allison Brooke Lancaster, I'm thirteen years old, fourteen in two weeks, I'm a Gryffindor, I have a fourteen year old brother named Will who's in the same house as me, and I live just outside of London."

"Favorite color?"

"Green."

"Pets?"

"A dog at home; her name's Trixie. And I have an owl here, Quicksilver."

"Hobbies?"

I smiled. His interrogation was cute. "I like to read. I used to take ballet before I came to Hogwarts. I'm learning to fly."

"You play Quidditch?"

"Nah, I'm not that good yet. I almost fell off my broom when… well, you know, when James got hurt…"

He didn't ask any more questions, and the silence grew slightly awkward.

"Um, what about you?"

"Quidditch or about myself?"

"Both, I guess."

"Alright, then. My name is Dimitri Ivanov. My family is in Romania, and I used to live there before Durmstrang. But I can't tell you vere that is; it's against our rules." Here he looked apologetic. "To answer your question, I enjoy to play Quidditch, but I do not play on our school team. For pets, I have an owl, Vijelie. My favorite color is navy blue. And I have two sisters; Ana is what you vould call a first year, and Helena is only seven."

At this point we had reached the edge of Hogsmeade. "Vere vould you like to go first?"

I shrugged. "This is my first time too, so I don't really know much about the shops and all."

He smiled. "Okay. Let's just valk. If you see a place you vant to go to, ve can go."

"Okay." Godric, this guy was actually pretty sweet!

We strolled along the sidewalk in a comfortable silence. Comfortable, that is, until I spotted a flash of red hair across the street. Upon closer examination, I saw that it was accompanied by a golden head and a brown one. I mentally groaned.

"Don't look now," I whispered, "but my friends are following us from across the street."

Dimitri seemed to be stifling a laugh. "Do you vant them to be?"

"Not really."

"Okay. Ve can slip into a shop or something." And without further warning, he grabbed my arm and pulled me into the nearest doorway.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

My Invisibility Cloak smelled like perfume.

You see, I had been keeping an eye on (no, not following, _keeping an eye on_) Allie on her date with that idiot from Durmstrang. Only, of course, for Will's sake. After all, he would want someone watching over his little sister, right? And for that purpose, I would of course need my Invisibility Cloak, right?

Which brought me back to wondering why the heck it smelled like perfume.

I had hardly even used it this year, much less while wearing perfume (which, for the record, I _don't_ wear) or with a girl. Of course, one of my cousins could have "borrowed" it, but I had too many girl cousins to be able to find out which one of them had used it. Rose remained at the top of my suspect list, although I couldn't really rule out Lily. For a first year, she was disturbingly devious. Probably she had been spending too much time with me…

I was jerked out of my thoughts when I nearly tripped over a trio of giggling, shushing girls. Upon closer examination, I saw that it was the aforementioned cousin, Charlotte DuPont, and Kailey Hoskin. They appeared to be doing the same thing I was- following- I MEAN KEEPING AN EYE ON- Allie and Duncehead's date.

"Rose," I hissed. She jumped about three feet into the air before whirling around. I lifted a corner of the Invisibility Cloak. "Rose, it's me. James."

Her bewildered look was replaced by one of equal parts relief and confusion. "What are you doing? Why are you under the Cloak?"

Oh, crap. "Uh… Will asked me to keep an eye on Allie."

Rose didn't look as though she totally believed me, but went with it anyway. "Oh. Typical Will."

"Yeah. So why are YOU following them?"  
Rose smirked, Charlotte and Kailey doing the same behind her. "We're keeping tabs on our best friend's first date. Got a problem with that?"

I shrugged. "Not really." I let the Cloak drop back into place. "Now c'mon, we're losing her."

"We?" But she allowed me to follow them following her. That is, until I saw Allie whisper something to Dimwit and the two of them slipped into a shop.

"Darn," I muttered. Only I didn't say darn. It felt odd that no one corrected or scolded me like Dad or Albus or Lily would normally have.

"It's all right," said Rose. "We'll just follow her in there."

"Zonko's?" I said. "But they'll definitely see us. It's always empty." It was true. Ever since WWW had opened a small branch in Hogsmeade, Zonko's had been struggling to stay in business. Somehow it had managed to hang on over the years, though.

"Never mind that; we'll go under the Cloak."

I cocked one eyebrow, a talent that I was quite proud of. "All four of us? We'd be lucky to fit two."

Rose opened her mouth like she was about to say something, but snapped it shut again. "Whatever. You and I'll go then."

I contorted my face into a mask of agony and shrank away from her, but allowed her to slip under the Cloak with me.

"Hang around here and look casual," Rose said, addressing Charlotte and Kailey. They nodded and immediately struck up a conversation about, from what I could tell, cheese.

I gave Rose a little shove. "Let's go, then." We shuffled forward, slipping through the door with practiced expertise. I spotted them almost immediately, in an aisle off to the side, Allie absently browsing through the shelves and both of them laughing at some unheard joke. My fists clenched automatically.

"James," Rose hissed. "Let go. You're pulling my hair."

I unclamped my hands. "My bad." I couldn't see her front, but I knew she was rolling her eyes now.

"C'mon, let's move closer. I can't hear them." We shuffled forward again, their voices growing louder and clearer.

"-had managed to get the dog out, so we convinced my dad to let us keep her. We named her Trixie after we found out she already knew loads of tricks. She can even stand up on her hind legs for almost a whole minute!" Allie smiled as she told her story, her mind obviously far away with her dog. Dimwit was smiling too. Ooh, I wanted to wipe that smile off his face…

"James!" Rose hissed again. "Hair!"

I muttered apologies, untangling my fingers from her curls.

"If you can't behave yourself and at least ACT like you aren't jealous, we're leaving!"

I spluttered. "What? Jealous- But I- Wait- Who would I be jealous of?"

I knew she was rolling her eyes here as she let out an irritated huff. "Dimitri, of course. In denial much?"

"What? Why would I be jealous of Dinklebrain?"

At this she turned around to look at me. "Dinklebrain? Really?" I shrugged. "Real mature, James. Anyway, it's obvious you're jealous of him because you like Allie. Even Lily and Hugo've figured it out by now."

"WHAT?" Suddenly, the chatter in the background stopped, and as I glanced at Allie and Doofus, they were looking around, confused. They'd clearly heard me, and I cursed under my breath. "C'mon, we've gotta get out of here," I whispered to Rose, and we started shuffling to the door.

Just as we opened it, however, Allie cried, "Hey!" and I knew she'd seen it.

"Run for it!" I hissed, and we darted out the door. Allie was just a beat behind us, with Dummy running after her, utterly confused. "Turn the corner!" But before we could make it, Allie put on a final burst of speed, reached out, and grabbed the Cloak.

As she yanked it off, I found myself fully visible again, about to run into Rose. I skidded to a stop and grabbed Rose's shirt to stop her from running further. Exchanging nervous glances, we slowly turned around to face Allie.

The look on her face was absolutely lethal, and her normally warm brown eyes were narrowed in fury. I didn't even know that Allie was capable of a glare that harsh; she must have been learning from Rose. At any rate, we both shrank back a little bit.

"What the heck were you two DOING?" she yelled, looking back and forth between us. "How long have you been following me?"

"Allie, I'm really sorry," said Rose. "We were just keeping an eye on you."

At this her expression grew, if possible, even more furious. "As much as I appreciate your concern, I'm not a puppy. I don't need you to 'keep an eye on me.'" Every word dripped with venom, and she turned to me. "And you! Here on my brother's orders, I'll bet. Well you know what? You can tell him…" She proceeded to colorfully inform me where Will could put his brotherly concern. And I'd thought she wouldn't be the type to curse me out. Well, we learn something new every day…

"Allie. Allie!" I managed to get her to stop screaming for about two seconds. "We really are sorry. We weren't trying to treat you like a kid, and Rose was just teasing you, you know that."

Allie opened her mouth, presumably to start yelling again, but Dimitri gave her arm a tug.

"Come on, Allie. Let's just go." She gave us one final glare, but allowed Dimitri (I've run out of appropriate insults that start with "D", okay?) to lead her away, still glaring. After about five paces, she turned her back to us and didn't look back.

Charlotte and Kailey tentatively crossed the street to where we were. When they were within earshot of us, Kailey murmured, "Is she gone, then?"

I nodded dumbly.

They both breathed sighs of relief. "For a secohnd zere I thought she was defeeneetly going to start 'exing you!" said Charlotte, her blue eyes wide.

"I'm surprised she didn't," muttered Rose. "S'pose she had the right to yell, though. We probably shouldn't've followed her."

"Yeah, I feel kinda bad," said Kailey. "We should apologize to her after she's cooled off a bit."

I just sighed, shoved my hands in my pockets, and began the long trek back to Hogwarts.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

I was simply too furious for words.

How could they- my supposed _friends_- follow me on my date? Rose and James… I would have to do something to them. Preferably something involving their pain. I mean, if that wasn't a blatant invasion of privacy, I don't know what would be.

On the bright side, Dimitri and I were getting along really well. After leaving those immature jerks behind, we stopped by Honeydukes and he bought me an edible Gryffindor scarf (according to the advertisement, it was the best way to "Show your House pride in a _tasteful_ new way!"), which pretty much made me forget about what had happened before. We basked in the sugary sweet air for a bit longer and then went to the Three Broomsticks where we both got butterbeers and talked to Scorpius for a bit. By the time we were heading back to Hogwarts, the sky was a brilliant tie-dye of orange, pink, purple, and the last tendrils of blue, and I was in a great mood. The first snap of autumn, only detectable after the sun was nearly gone, made me wish my jacket was a bit thicker, although I had had no need for it during the afternoon. Dimitri, noticing that I was shivering, took off his jacket and draped it carefully over my shoulders.

"Thanks," I said, enjoying its warmth. "Are you sure you're okay without it?"

"I am fine," he said, sounding a little embarrassed. "I am used to much colder temperatures at Durmstrang."

"Alright," I said, smiling. "Y'know, I had a lot of fun today. Thanks."

"You are velcome," he said, smiling slightly. "So vould you like to accompany me to the next Hogsmeade trip?"

Butterflies erupted in my chest and I smiled again. "Yes, I'd love to."

We had almost reached the castle before he spoke again. "Ah, look, Allie… Erm, I am not familiar vith British customs, so… does this mean ve are boyfriend and girlfriend?"

I blushed. "Er, if you want us to be."

"Vell, do you vant us to be?"

I turned to look at him, meeting his dark eyes, and took a deep breath. "Yes."

He grinned suddenly, probably the happiest I'd ever seen him. "Vunderful." He caught me in a one-armed hug that was both awkward and sweet at the same time. "I vill see you later, then."

"Yeah, see you."

And with that we parted ways, I headed for the Gryffindor tower and he for the Slytherin dungeons.

I was passing through the Common Room and was about to go up to my dorm when I realized that there was someone else in the room.

"Hey, Hugo." His curly red head turned around, and he spotted me over the edge of the couch he was sitting on.

"Hi Allie," he said. "How was Hogsmeade?"

I grinned foolishly and plopped down next to him. "It was great!"

He smiled. "That's good."

"D'you know if your sister's back yet?"

"Rose? I don't think so; I haven't seen her."  
"Okay, thanks. So what have you been doing all day?"

He shrugged. "Homework, mostly. Me and Lily hung out earlier, but she had to go help her friend with some project or something."

"Oh, that's too bad."

"Yeah. Hang on, you had a date, didn't you? Dimitri, was it?"

I blushed a little. "Yeah, how did you hear?"

Counting on his fingers, he said, "Charlotte told Will who told James who told Albus who told Lily who told me."

"Okay… I think I'll just pretend I understood what you said."

He grinned. "Trust me, it's much easier that way." We made small talk for a few more minutes before something occurred to me.

"Hey Hugo, I don't mean to pry, but… well, you know when you were being Sorted? I kinda noticed that the hat took a long time on you, and you looked kind of freaked out when you sat down. What… er, what exactly happened?"

He sighed and put his chin in his hands. "The hat- it- well, it wanted to put me in Hufflepuff."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with that; Hufflepuff's not so bad. People only say that the Hufflepuffs are all a bunch of duffers, really. They're all hardworking and fair and nice and all."

He scowled. "But it _seriously_ wanted to put me in Hufflepuff! The only reason it didn't was 'cause I practically begged to be in Gryffindor. It said something like 'Well, you're brave enough, but I really think you'd be happier in Hufflepuff… more people like you there…'" He finished and looked at his knees dejectedly.

Unsure how exactly to console a younger kid considering I myself was the youngest sibling in my family, I asked another question. "Well, are you happy in Gryffindor?"

He looked up at this. "Yeah! I've made loads of friends and I get to hang out with Lily a lot… she's always been my best friend before Hogwarts. Plus I know my dad really wanted me to be Gryffindor. But I just keep thinking _what if_ I was in Hufflepuff? Like, would I actually be happier there?"

"Well, I can't really answer that as I'm not the Sorting hat, but you can't really do anything about it now, so why worry about it? It won't do anything for you." I then added, "And besides, I personally think you're a brilliant Gryffindor."

He smiled. "Thanks, Allie. It makes more sense when you say it than it does in my head."

I smiled too. "No problem. I'm gonna go get ready for dinner now, if you don't mind."

"Sure. See ya."

I returned to the third year dorm where I said hello to Roxanne and then quickly changed for dinner. When I went through the Common Room again, Hugo was gone and I guessed that he was already down at the Great Hall.

When I got to the Gryffindor table, I made sure to steer clear of the general Weasley/Potter area and instead went to sit with Lorcan and Lysander and, when she later joined us, Roxanne (admittedly, she was a Weasley, but not involved in the whole thing this afternoon, so…)

"Hey," she said as she slid in next to me on the bench.

"Hi," we all said in somewhat unison.

"Sooooo how was your date?" she asked me in a singsong voice, grinning.

"What date?" asked Lorcan, his normally dazed look replaced by one of alert interest.

"Allie had a date with a bloke from _Durmstrang_," she said, still smiling.

Each twin cocked an eyebrow in unison. "Durmstrang?"

I said very slowly and carefully, as if speaking to a small child, "Yes, Durmstrang. You know, that school that's been staying with us for the past three weeks or so?"

Lysander aimed a mock slap at me. "Well of course we know what Durmstrang is. The school that's most famous for producing Dark wizards."

"Oh, give her a break," said Roxanne. "I've met the guy, Dimitri; he seems pretty nice." After a moment, she added, "Are you two together, then?"

"Er, yeah," I said, blushing.

"Oooooooooo!" she squealed, hugging me. "Congratulations! If that's the right sentiment…" Then, smirking evilly, she added, "So have you kissed yet?"

I choked on my pumpkin juice and Louis Weasley, who was sitting nearby, pounded me on the back a few times. "Thanks," I managed to get out to him, eyes streaming.

Roxanne snickered. "Guess I should've waited till your mouth wasn't full."

I glared at her. "Yes, you should've." I coughed again and wiped my eyes.

"So…. have you?"

I looked at Lorcan and Lysander, who were trying (unsuccessfully) to hide their laughter behind their hands.

"Not that it's any of your business," I said, alternating my glares between the twins and Roxanne, "But no. Godric, it's only our first date! And we're only third years, honestly!"

All three groaned. "And that would've been such a good bit of gossip," said Roxanne disappointedly.

I rolled my eyes. "Better luck next time."

Afterwards, the twins tried to explain to us about something called white-banded spockalumps, but we both sort of tuned out when they started getting too technical. After dinner was over, Roxanne and I walked back to the Common Room together. We worked on History of Magic (my worst subject) together, and at around ten o' clock I went upstairs and she went to return something to one of her Ravenclaw friends. I got ready for bed, pointedly ignoring the other members of my dorm, climbed into bed, and flicked my curtains shut.

The next day, Sunday, I worked on homework under the shade of a tree next to the lake for the better part of the morning, finally finishing my last assignment, a nasty little diagram (in full color!) of a puffapod for Herbology, right before noon.

After lunch, I decided to send a letter to my parents, which I hadn't gotten a chance to do yet even though I'd had it written and ready for a while. I managed to find the owlery without getting lost too many times and gingerly picked my way across the dropping covered floor. There must have been hundreds of owls, all nestled together and hooting softly.

"Quicksilver," I called, extending my arm. With a flurry of feathers and a screech of protest from a neighboring owl, my tawny owl swooped off of his perch and landed on my outstretched arm, gently pecking my ear. "Hey 'Silver," I murmured, petting him affectionately. "Long time no see, huh?" He hooted softly by way of response. "I'm sorry. Look, I've got a message for you to deliver. You up to it?" He turned his big dark eyes on me indignantly. "Okay," I said, taking an owl treat from the pocket of my jacket and offering it to him. "Just checking." After he had finished the treat, I pulled the letter out from my purse. "Get this to Mum and Dad, okay? Number 8, Channings Lane." He gave a last hoot and soared out of the window.

The rest of the day was uneventful, my afternoon spent with Lily and Clarice and my evening spent in a book.

Monday morning was also without incident, although it was a bit uncomfortable when I realized that I had no one to pass notes with in History of Magic. In Defense Against the Dark Arts I realized how difficult it could be to do a project on hinkypunks if one wasn't speaking to her partner, and by Ancient Runes, which was my last class before lunch, I was downright lonely. I suppose that was one of the disadvantages of hanging out mostly with only one group of people. And then fighting with them.

After lunch was Potions, which went by without a hitch. I was just walking out at the end of class when someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around, thinking that it was probably Lysander telling me I'd left my essence of belladonna behind again, but instead I found a freckled face framed by carroty hair staring back at me, flanked by a blonde and a brunette.

"What do you want, Rose?"

"We," she said, gesturing to Charlotte and Kailey, "want to apologize."

"Oh, really," I said, putting all my resentment and annoyance with them into those two words.

"Yes, really," said Rose, not backing down. "Look, we know it was really awful of us to follow you, and we're sorry. James is too… you seriously have no idea… he's been mopey all weekend, and even you ought to know that James is _never _mopey. Or sorry. Anyway, you had a right to act the way you did; I would've done the same. But can't you _please_ forgive us?"

"Why should I? You were horrible and mean and you completely invaded my privacy, and Rose, you knew _exactly_ how nervous I was for that date! Why did you even follow me to begin with?"

"I dunno… to make sure you were okay… to spy a little…"

"See?"

"Well, the spying part was wrong, but can you blame me for wanting to make sure that one of my best friends was okay?"

"You weren't acting like you were my best friend," I said accusingly, but I knew that I was wearing down.

Apparently Charlotte knew too, because she said, "Please, Allie?"

"Ugh!" I said, kicking out at the wall. "Why can't I even stay mad at you guys?"

"So you forgive us?" said Rose carefully, hope glimmering in her eyes.

"Fine," I grumbled.

"Yay!" said Kailey, pulling all of us into a hug. "Now c'mon, we're already late for Transfiguration."

At dinner, I remembered that I had one last piece of unfinished business. I sat in between Rose and Kailey, who politely pretended to be absorbed in their meals, and across from him.

"Hey, James," I said tentatively. He looked up, surprised.

"Oh! Uh, hi Allie."

"How are you?" Awkward, awkward, awkward…

"Er, I'm fine, thanks. How 'bout you?"

"Good." Even more awkward.

James groaned, ran his hand through his hair, and voiced my thoughts by saying, "Well this is awkward."

I smiled. "Yeah, it is, but it makes it less awkward when you say it out loud."

"Yeah, I guess it does. Allie, are you still mad at me? I really am sorry-"

I cut him off. "No, James, I'm not mad anymore. And please, save the speech. I've already heard it from Rose."

His shoulders sagged in relief. "Thanks."

"No problem. Besides, I know you were only doing it for Will."

"Yeah. For Will." He blushed, which I had hardly ever seen him do.

"You all right?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." He paused, then added, "But please don't take it out on your brother. He means well, and he was only trying to protect you." I opened my mouth, but before I could speak he said, "Yeah, yeah, I know you don't need protecting, but he doesn't, so… just don't be mad at him."

"Alright," I said, frowning. "But you'd better know that I'm only doing this for your sake."

He smirked, getting back to his old self. "Of course."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALLIE!"

I was awakened from a very pleasant dream by seven voices screaming in my face and the sudden burst of sunlight that came from my bed curtains being quickly pulled aside. My first reaction was to scream. But then the meaning of the words came through to me.

Sitting up and grinning, I said, "Thanks, guys!" All the girls in our dorm were crowded around my bed, even Arianne White and Emily Freeman, with whom I had never been particularly close.

"We have a surprise!" sang Rose, pulling something out from behind her back.

"Ooh! A birthday cupcake! Thanks!" She handed it to me , and after they all sang happy birthday, I blew it out.

"Can I have the candle?" asked Kailey. I obliged, and she proceeded to lick it clean of any icing it might have had.

"This is so sweet, guys! Thanks!" I beamed.

"You're very welcome!" said Rose cheerfully. "Now hurry up and get dressed. We're going to miss breakfast." With that, the girls dispersed. I quickly ate my cupcake and got dressed. Rose appeared in front of me again, this time holding a wrapped present.

"Happy fourteenth," she said, smiling.

"Aw, Rose," I said, hugging her. "Thanks! You didn't have to get me anything."

"Well, I did anyway, so are you going to open it or not?"

"Of course!" I released her and she gave me the present, wrapped in a bright Gryffindor gold. I unwrapped it carefully to save the paper and put the bow in my hair, which made Rose roll her eyes. "Oh my gosh! It's so pretty!" In my lap was a large book bound with deep purple cloth. On the front in gold lettering the words _Allie Lancaster_ were embossed. I opened it and found that the pages were blank. "Is it a diary?" She nodded, and I hugged Rose again. "Thank you so much!"

"No problem," she said, smiling. "I ordered it from that store in Hogsmeade, Scrivenshaft's. Now come on, we really are going to be late."

It had been two weeks since Will's and my fight about Dimitri, and it was all but forgotten. We had gradually returned to being friendly, and as such, I sat next to him at breakfast.

"Happy birthday, Sis," he said, hugging me.

"Thanks, Will," I replied.

"Now, on three," he said to James, who sat across from him.

I looked up. "What?"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR ALLIE…" I sank down as far as I could go in my seat and buried my face in my hands until it was over. By that point, however, James and Will had not only drawn the attention of everyone in the Great Hall, but they had also gotten almost the entire Gryffindor table and even a few Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs to sing along.

"You know we love you, Allie," James teased when I finally lifted my head.

"I'm sure," I muttered, blushing hard and attempting to go back to my breakfast.

"Aw, c'mon Al," said Will, tossing an arm around me. "Here, does this make up for it?" He pulled a small present out of his robes.

I perked up immediately, smiling. "Yup!" He handed it to me and watched as I unwrapped it.

"Yum! Thanks, Will!" It was a box of Honeydukes white chocolate with bits of candy cane embedded in it. "Here." I broke off a chunk and gave it to him.

"I was hoping you'd do that," he said as he popped it into his mouth.

"What about me?" James pouted.

"Fine," I grumbled, handing him a small piece. "And don't you lot start with me," I said to the girls, all of whom had been staring hungrily at the chocolate. "You'll get some later."

The rest of the day went by quite normally until Potions, my last class.

"Happy birthday," said Dimitri, coming up beside me while Professor Slughorn was preoccupied by some Slytherin's exploded cauldron.

"Thanks," I said, momentarily abandoning my Deflating Draught.

"I have a gift for you," he said, "but I do not have it vith me. Can you meet me after class by the hippogriff statue in the fifth floor corridor?"

"Sure," I said, excitement fluttering in my stomach. "See ya there."

"See you." He returned to his cauldron.

Lysander, who had been quietly attending to his potion throughout the conversation, grinned evilly. "Hmm… I really should inform Will of this…"

I gasped. "You wouldn't!"

"Would too. And I also think your best friends ought to know."

"Ly, I hope you know I'd have to hex you if you did."

"But it just might be worth it…"

"Rose just taught me how to do the Bat-Bogey."

He laughed, just a hint of panic in his eyes. "Fine, fine. But you're going to tell them anyway; what difference does it make?" He glanced at something over my shoulder and his eyes widened. "Allie, you should probably check your draught…"

I did, only to find it was about to overflow. "Shoot," I muttered, turning down my fire and desperately trying to return it to the gentle shade of cerulean that it had been before.

"Beautiful," said Lysander smugly, meticulously adding rat spleens to his draught.

"Shut up."

Slughorn chose that moment to pass by our table. "Miss Lancaster, what on earth-"

"Sorry, Professor," I mumbled, blushing. "I must've left it over the fire too long."

"No need to apologize, Miss Lancaster, just-" He turned to Lysander. "Lysander, my dear boy, you wouldn't mind giving Miss Lancaster here a hand, would you?" Lysander happened to be one of Slughorn's favorites, mainly due to his excellence in Potions and his famous father.

"Of course, sir," he said, ladling some of his draught into a small bottle and handing it to Slughorn. "And here's mine, Professor." He smirked at me.

"Ah, excellent as usual, m'boy." He waddled off to someone else's table, leaving Lysander snickering quietly and me on the verge making true my threat of hexing him.

Fifteen minutes later, my potion was passable and class was over. I slipped out before Rose and the others could find me and started towards the fifth floor. By the time I had reached it, I was panting and had to take a moment to catch my breath and mentally curse Dimitri. Really? The _fifth_ floor? And naturally, the hippogriff statue was all the way at the end of the corridor.

It was a sort of menacing thing, that statue. At least seven feet tall and constantly glowering down at me with a cruelly sharp beak and one razor-like claw extended. It looked as though it could eat me at any point that it wished, and the only reason I was still alive was because it decided to let me be so. _Try me_, it seemed to say. _See how long you'd last._

"Hello."

I shrieked, pulling my wand out instinctively, only to find myself practically jamming it up poor Dimitri's nose. "Sorry!" I blushed profusely and stuffed my wand back into my pocket. "I just- the statue- I mean, I thought-"

He chuckled. "There is nothing to be sorry for."

I couldn't help but smile. He was _so_ sweet!

"Anyway, here is your gift. Happy birthday." He reached into his robe pocket and pulled out a small gift wrapped in deep blue. Handing it to me, he stepped back and looked rather awkward.

I unwrapped it curiously, finding a small velvet box. Upon opening that, I saw what might be one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.

There was a delicate silver chain on which hung a small pendant: an owl in flight with a letter clutched in its beak. Its tiny eyes were glittering, green tourmalines, my birthstone. Every detail was perfect right down to the last feather, and it even looked a bit like Quicksilver.

I looked up, eyes watering. "Dimitri… it's gorgeous."

He smiled the biggest smile I'd seen on him yet. "I am very glad that you like it."

"Are you kidding? I love it! Would you help me put it on?" He took the necklace and hung it around my neck, his warm fingers clasping it in the back. I turned, a bubble of elation rising inside of me. "Thank you so much. This is probably the best birthday present anyone's ever given me." I stepped in and hugged him, my head only a little bit higher than his shoulder. Stepping back half a step, I found his deep brown eyes gazing down at me, and I instinctively leaned in. Half a centimeter from my face, he murmured, "Happy birthday, Allie," and closed the distance between us.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Dimitri was kissing me, and it was sweet and warm and happy when… "_Allie_?" We broke apart, and I began to blush profusely when I saw who it was.

"J-James, what are you doing here?" He, too, was blushing, shuffling from one foot to another.

"I, erm, was trying to get into the prefects' bathroom." Seeing our confused looks, he added, "My cousin Dominique gave me the password. I- er, I'll just go…" He started to back away.

"Wait one minute," I hissed, latching onto his arm. "This does _not_ get back to my brother. D'you understand?"

He gulped visibly. "Yeah, sure." Then he turned and practically sprinted away.

I turned back to Dimitri, my face heating up even more. "I'm really sorry about that."

He smiled, looking only a little embarrassed. "It is alright. It vas not your fault." He stole a quick look at his watch. "Ve had probably better get back; it is almost dinnertime." I nodded. "Vould you like me to valk you there?" I nodded again, blushing a little more this time.

We started towards the Great Hall, and somewhere along the way, his hand found mine, sending nervous butterflies erupting in my chest. The first few minutes were rather awkward, but after a bit I asked him about his friends whom I had met briefly on our way to Hogsmeade, and he told me all about sweet but sometimes ridiculously protective Nadia and funny, easygoing Cristian and wicked smart Stefan who happened to love to use his brains to pull pranks. Hearing about all of their escapades and how normal they sounded got me thinking: I really didn't know much about any of Charlotte's or Kailey's friends from their respective schools. _I'll be sure to ask them about them sometime_, I resolved to myself.

A short while later, we had arrived at the Great Hall entrance.

"Thanks again for the gift, Dimitri," I said, smiling. "It really means a lot to me." I couldn't keep my mind from going back to the _other_ part of the afternoon, and for about the millionth time, I felt a flush creeping up my cheeks.

"It is no problem; I am glad you liked it." He kissed my cheek, making me both embarrassed and pleased, and headed inside towards the Slytherin table.

I had to take a minute to compose myself before walking in; the afternoon had been so overwhelming! But Will couldn't know… I had to force myself to stop smiling and tried to arrange my face into a semblance of normalcy. I pushed the door open and headed for the Gryffindors, sliding into an empty seat next to Kailey.

"Where've you been?" she hissed. "Rose and Charlotte and I have been looking _everywhere_!"

"Later," I muttered, glancing a few seats down to where Will and James were exchanging jokes. I saw that Rose and Charlotte had leaned in, seeming to think that I was saying something important. "I said later!"

"What're you all talking about?" asked Will, leaning forward to get a good view of us.

"Nothing!" we chorused, and I silently gave thanks that my friends knew me well enough to be able to pull these kinds of things off. Will shot me a disbelieving look but returned to his conversation with James.

"Thanks," I breathed.

"Sure," replied Rose just as quietly, spooning some stewed black beans onto her plate.

"So, Charlotte, Kailey," I started, turning towards them. "I was thinking, and I realized I don't- er, I mean- well, I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't really know who your friends are in your own school. I mean, you've been spending a lot of time with us Hogwarts students since you arrived- not that I don't like it, of course, 'cause I do, but… do you follow me?"

Charlotte tilted her head back and laughed. "Yes, I understand you. I theenk Kailey does, too." Kailey nodded. "Do you weesh for me to tell you about my friends at Beauxbatons?" Rose and I nodded eagerly. "Okay. Well, zere eez Jessamine; you see down zere at ze Hufflepuff table? Ze one weet ze very curly blonde 'air?" I craned my neck and indeed caught a glimpse of Jessamine. "She eez one of my closer friends. Very… how do you say… not strange, but… I believe eet starts weeth an 'e'…"

"Eccentric?" offered Rose, and Charlotte nodded enthusiastically.

"Yes, zat eez eet. Eccentreec. She loves Muggle music, especially American bands. Zere eez one zat she likes in particular, but I cannot remember… I theenk eet eez called Bird City."

"Uh, you don't mean Owl City, do you?" asked Kailey.

"Oh, yes, zat one. And zere eez also Mimi and Nicolette, at ze Ravenclaw table, and you see Cody next to Jessamine? Zey are dating…" She cut herself off. "Sorry, I am babbling."

"No, it's fine," I assured her. "They sound nice."

"What about you, Kailey?" asked Rose.

"Well, there's Carolina sitting down there next to Clarice Longbottom. See, with the reddish-brown hair? She and I are pretty good friends, and we're both obsessed with Bones-"

Rose interrupted, staring at Kailey. "You're obsessed with _bones_? As in human bones?"

Kailey laughed. "No, not human bones. It's this Muggle TV show. You know what a TV show is, right?" Rose looked offended, and Kailey hurriedly continued. "Just making sure! Anyway, it's awesome! It's about this Muggle scientist named Dr. Temperance Brennan-" I made a face. "-Yeah, I know, it's an awful name. But this FBI- Muggle Auror- guy that she works with, his name's Seeley Booth, calls her Bones 'cause she's a forensic anthropologist, which means she looks at human remains to determine cause of death and when they died and stuff." All three of us were staring at her. "What? It's a good show! Here," she said, grabbing her purse from under the table and pulling out her key ring. Attached to it, in addition to a library card and about five keys, was a white plastic keychain with the word Bones written in angular letters.

"Merlin, you're obsessed," muttered Rose. Kailey blushed a little, grumbling about how she was going to make Rose watch an episode if it killed her. Charlotte and I exchanged amused glances.

Back in the dorm a few hours later, Rose, Kailey and I were waiting for our turns in the bathroom while Charlotte washed up when Rose motioned for me and Kailey to come to her bed. We did, leaning in as she whispered, "We need to do something about Will and Charlotte."

Kailey grinned. "Ooh, matchmaking!"

Rose smiled back. "Exactly. Now, what we need is a plan. Obviously Allie's going to be important- don't even bother complaining, he's your brother! Now, I don't have anything definite yet, but everyone brainstorm and tomorrow night when Charlotte's in the bathroom we can-"

"We can what?" asked Charlotte, stepping out of the bathroom.

Rose looked around, panicked. "Er, we can… Well, we were just saying that when you got out of the bathroom, we could… er… ask Allie about where she was this afternoon!" I glared at Rose, although it was admittedly a pretty smooth cover-up.

Charlotte bought into it immediately. "Oh yes, Allie! Where were you zis afternoon?"

"Ugh, you aren't going to leave me alone until you find out, are you?" They all shook their heads. "Fine, but it's not that big of a deal. I was with Dimitri-" Kailey squealed. "-because he wanted to give me my present." I fingered the necklace, which Rose didn't miss.

"Ooohh," she sighed, reaching out to examine it. "It's beautiful!"

"Yeah," I said, smiling.

"You know, it kinda looks like your owl!" said Kailey, studying the pendant.

"Mhm."

"But wait. Why'd it take so long?"

"Well he asked me to meet him on the fifth floor, and I was coming from the dungeons, so it took a rather long time to get there to begin with, and then we were there for a bit, y'know, 'cause he gave it to me and I was thanking him and all, and then we had to walk all the way to the Great Hall, and of course we were talking that whole time, so it's not as though we were exactly sprinting there, and-"

"He kissed you, didn't he?" asked Rose.

I blushed furiously. "Maybe…" Kailey squealed again, only this time it sounded more like a scream, which got us some funny looks from Emily and Arianne, so I slapped a hand over her mouth. "Shut it!" She stopped, but her eyes still sparkled with excitement.

"He kissed you, he kissed you," sang Kailey under her breath as Charlotte giggled and Rose beamed and gave me a huge hug.

"How was eet?" asked Charlotte between laughs.

I was sure my face was about to catch fire. "Erm, nice?"

All three girls groaned. "No, give us details! What exactly happened?" demanded Kailey. I was forced to recount the whole thing for them, interrupted by their sighs and squeaks.

"…and then James popped out of nowhere-"

"_What?_" said Rose.

"Yeah, he said something about the prefects' bathroom and how his cousin… I think it was Dominic or something… gave him the password."

Rose looked thoughtful. "Well, it's true, Dominique's a Hufflepuff prefect, but it doesn't seem like her at all to give him that password. She knows he'd abuse it." She rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, I made him promise not to tell Will, but I don't know how good his word is. He ran off to who knows where, and then Dimitri said something like 'It's almost dinnertime, so we should get down to the Great Hall', so we walked down there. And that's all." They all groaned.

"But-" began Rose.

"I'm tired, and I'm going to get ready for bed," I announced.

"I was _going_ to say that I think it's weird that James was hanging around."

"Oh. Well, it's not that big of a deal." And I darted into the bathroom, smirking as I closed the door on Rose and Kailey's complaints, Charlotte's laughter, and Emily's request for them to _please_ either cast a _Muffliato_ charm or shut up.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

**A/N: I actually do have a good excuse this time for not updating. My history teacher assigned an enormous project that has been slowly sucking out my soul like a dementor. Plus, I'm lazy ;) So, as it's due tomorrow and I've finished, I _finally_ sat down and made myself finish this chapter. Hope you like it; please drop me a line to let me know what you think!**

**Disclaimer: Not J.K. Rowling; don't own HP**

"So did either of y'all have any brainwaves?" asked Kailey the next day in the Common room. Charlotte was off somewhere hanging out with her friend Jessamine, and we were making the most of it. We had managed to snag some decent chairs about ten feet from the fire, which was pretty good for a couple of third years.

"Brain what?" said Rose, eyebrows arching.

She rolled her eyes. "_Ideas_."

"Oh. Well… no."

Kailey sighed dramatically. "Allie?"

"Did you really just say y'all?"

Kailey gave me a look. "Not the point." As an afterthought, she added, "Yes, yes I did."

"Weell," I said, drawing out the word, "I might've."

"Might've what?"

"Had a brain…thingy."

"At least _one_ of you is useful," said Kailey with a pointed look at Rose that elicited her a light punch. "Ow!"

"You deserved it," said Rose, smirking.

"D'you want to hear it or not?" I asked.

"Right, sorry. Go on."

"So I was thinking-" Just then, the portrait hole opened and Charlotte climbed through. "Just play along," I muttered. "Rose, complain about being bored."

Rather loudly, Rose announced, "I'm _so_ bored!"

Charlotte, who had reached us, said, "You could do your homework."

Rose looked at her. "When did you get so studious? Besides," she added a bit smugly, "I've already finished."

"Nerd," muttered Kailey.  
"Hmm?" said Rose, looking at her.

"Nothing," Kailey replied innocently.

"Well, eef you've finished, then we could do sometheeng," Charlotte said.

"Which brings us back to my first point: I'm bored." Rose let out a theatrical sigh and leaned back in her chair.

"Let's play truth or dare!" I suggested as though I'd just thought of it.

"With only four people? That's no fun," said Kailey, catching on.

"Well then let's invite the guys," I said. "C'mon." I hopped up, grabbed Charlotte, and dragged her over to the couches in front of the fire where my brother, James, and Fred Weasley sat.

"We challenge you to a game of truth or dare," I announced.

"Because that went _so_ well the first time," muttered James.

"What? No one got caught," I said.

"You mean _you_ didn't get caught. When Fred came back with Filch on his tail, he saw the Stinkbombs and sent us all to McGonagall."

Oops. "Oh, come on. No Stinkbombs this time, how 'bout that?"

"Fine… I haven't got anything better to do," said Fred.

"Okay," said Will.

"…Alright!" said James. "But I get to go first!"

"Childish much?" muttered Rose as we girls plopped down on empty couches.

"Stuff it," said James. And then he grinned evilly. "Rose, truth or dare?"

"Truth," she said quickly, obviously wanting to avoid whatever horrible fate James had planned out for her.

"Baby." She stuck out her tongue. "Fine. Um… who do you like?"

"Seriously? That's got to be the most boring truth known to mankind."

"But yet you don't want to answer," said James, smirking.

Rose blushed. "Pass."

"Aw, no passes!" complained Will. "Then no one does anything!"

"C'mon, Rose! No one's going to tell," wheedled Kailey.

"Fine," she mumbled. "Er, Tanner Regis."

She was met with six blank looks.

"Who's that?" asked Fred.

"A Hufflepuff in my year."

"Okay?" he said, clearly not familiar with Tanner.

"My turn," said Rose, clearly not comfortable with this subject. She inclined her head slightly toward Will and then turned to me. I gave her a quick nod, and she said, "Will, truth or dare?"

"Dare," he said confidently.

Barely managing a straight face, Rose said, "Okay. Then I dare you to give Charlotte a piggy back ride and run through the hallway singing 'A Whole New World'."

Will paled. "_What_?"

"You heard me. Go on, Charlotte. Get on." I turned to look at Charlotte, whom I found was blushing furiously and looking absolutely mortified.

"Oh, honestly," said Kailey. "It's not as though anyone will be out there to see you."

"And," I added, grinning, "You did say that having passes makes it boring."

Will gave me the evil eye but stood and knelt so that Charlotte could get on. Both their faces looked like they might catch fire.

"I apologize," I heard him mutter to Charlotte as he struggled through the portrait hole, attracting quite a lot of stares.

"Why are we still sitting here?" asked Fred. "C'mon!" We all dashed to the portrait hole just in time to hear Will start singing.

"I can show you the world, shining, shimmering, splendid…" Glancing back at my friends, I saw their mouths wide open.

"W-Will can _sing_!" said Fred, goggling.

"He's bloody fantastic!" said Rose.

"Yeah, a little bit," I said smugly.

"You knew?"

"Of course. He's my brother, after all. You accidentally picked the perfect dare."Rose laughed incredulously.

"A whole new world," he sang, his voice echoing off the stone walls and floors. "A new fantastic point of view…" I heard Charlotte's laughter ringing out as he spun around. "No one to tell us no, or where to go, or say we're only dreaming,"

Turning around again, I was surprised to find practically the whole Common room standing behind me, watching the spectacle. Several of the girls looked veritably jealous, and I heard whispers going around.

"Unbelievable sights, indescribable feelings, soaring tumbling, freewheeling, through an endless diamond sky,"

"What is going on here?" boomed McGonagall's voice as she hurried down the corridor and was nearly mowed over by Will and Charlotte. "What is the meaning of this…" she stopped as she heard Will singing the last few words.

"Let me share this whole new world with you…" he stopped running, let Charlotte down gently, and stood there for a moment, panting.

And then the corridor exploded with applause, whoops, and catcalls. Even McGonagall looked as though a reluctant smile was finding its way to her face. Will gave Charlotte a high-five, and I did the same to Rose and Kailey.

"Part one accomplished," I whispered, and they grinned back at me.

"Quiet," said McGonagall, barely raising her voice, and the hallway fell silent. "Back to the Common room, everyone." We all turned to leave. "Except you two." Will and Charlotte hung back, looking nervous.

"Ooh, I hope we didn't land them in detention," said Kailey worriedly when we were back in the Common room.

"Probably not," said James, although he didn't sound very sure. "Anyway, that was an awesome dare!"

"Yeah," agreed Fred. "D'you know, I sort of got the feeling that Will fancies Charlotte."

"No way," said James, laughing. "I don't see it at all."

Rose, Kailey and I had to sprint upstairs before we could collapse laughing.

_**Pagebreak**_

"What happened?"

"Did you get detention?"

"Are you in trouble?"

Charlotte had just walked in, and it had been ten minutes of agony for us, waiting in the dormitory.

She smiled, putting her hands up in surrender. "Professor McGonagall found eet very funny, alzough she pretended not to. She said zat she must give us detention for eet but eet eez only one night."

"Aw, Char," said Rose, giving her a hug. "I'm sorry! I didn't think McGonagall would actually come."

"Eet eez alright," she said good-naturedly. "One detention will not keel me."

"Yeah, and you get to do it with Will," said Kailey, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. Charlotte blushed.

"Very funny. I am going to get ready for bed," she said, heading for the bathroom. As soon as she'd closed the door, we all convened at Rose's bed.

"So tonight was a success, if a bit cheesy," she said quickly. "But we need to come up with a part two. Detention ought to be a good time, but I don't know how we could do anything. Unless…"

"Invisibility Cloak," finished Kailey, a smile spreading over her face.

Charlotte walked out of the bathroom wearing her favorite lavender pyjamas with the smiling moons.

"What deed I miss?"

"Oh, nothing…" I hurried for my bed, drew the curtains, and giggled helplessly into my pillow.

_**(Pagebreak)**_

"Commence Operation Get These Romance Blind Idiots Together, Part Two," whispered Rose as she, Kailey and I stood under the Invisibility Cloak outside the classroom door where Will and Charlotte were to have detention. They had not yet arrived, and we were waiting for them to do so so that we could slip in behind them.

"That name is way too long," I informed her. Kailey nodded her head in agreement.

"Fine," grumbled Rose. "You come up with something, then."

"Operation Hook Up Will and Charlotte?" Kailey offered.

"Ew," I said. "Bad mental pictures."

"What about Operation We're Too Stupid to Come Up with a Name?"

"That's even longer than mine!" said Rose.

"I've got it! Operation SHUT UP THEY'RE COMING."

Kailey looked at me bemusedly. "That's a horrible-" Rose slapped a hand over her mouth as Will came around the corner, followed by Charlotte.

"I'm really sorry to have landed you in detention," said Will, leaning against the doorframe.

Charlotte smiled. "Zere is no need to apologize for ze feefth time, Will."

"Er, right. Sorry."

Charlotte laughed. "Seexth."

"You two will be cleaning up the mess that Peeves made in here," announced McGonagall, arriving at the doorway. "You may leave when you have finished. And no magic." She held out her hand, and they put their wands into it reluctantly. "I will be back in an hour to see to your progress. _Alohomora_." The door unlocked with a click and she strode away, surprisingly quickly for a woman of her age.

Charlotte eyed the closed door apprehensively. "Well, I suppose we might as well begin," she said. She opened the door and walked in, Will right behind her. Fortunately for us, we were ready and managed to squeeze in before he closed it. I felt him brush my shoulder and frown, looking bemusedly at his hand and then waving it where we had been standing a moment ago. Shrugging, he let it go, and we all let out a silent breath.

"Oh sweet Merlin," muttered Will, surveying the classroom. There were rude words written all over the chalkboard, spitballs stuck on the ceiling, random clumps of food strewn over the floor, and ripped up paper sprinkled everywhere so that it looked like it had snowed.

"At least she left us ze cleaning tools," said Charlotte halfheartedly, pointing at the pile of brooms (non-magical, of course), dustpans, and disinfectant spray.

"Why couldn't she just be nice and give us lines?" complained Will to the ceiling as he started towards the pile. As Charlotte hurried after him, Rose stuck out her foot so that Charlotte tripped over it with a little yelp. Will, spun around and managed to catch her before she hit the ground face-first. "You alright?"

"Y-yes, thank you," stuttered Charlotte, blushing prettily. Will held on to her for just a moment longer than was necessary, then seemed to snap out of it and hurried to help her stand. They gathered the cleaning supplies in silence other than an agreement to work on the paper first. As they started sweeping, we hustled to a corner and cast Muffliato.

"Okay, any ideas?" asked Rose.

"No, but nice move with the trip," said Kailey. As she was still behind me, I couldn't see her face, but I could hear the grin in her voice.

"Thanks," replied Rose. "Oh! And I've just had another idea. Does either of you have any Peruvian Instant Darkness powder on you?"

"Yeah, because I just carry that stuff on me everywhere," I said sarcastically.

Kailey snickered. "Sorry, I don't have any either."

"Ha ha," said Rose to me. "And it's not a big deal, anyway. It just would've been loads easier…" She trailed off. "Just follow me." We started moving again, shuffling towards the windows. When we reached the first one, Rose slowly began pulling the curtains shut. Will and Charlotte, who had started talking again, took no notice. When the window was completely covered, Rose muttered something under her breath, extinguishing a candle. She continued doing this until the only windows open were the two nearest to Will and Charlotte, who were completely oblivious to what was going on around them, and all the candles were out. The room was already fairly dark, and it was a wonder that they hadn't noticed yet. "On three, run with me, right foot first," said Rose. "One, two, _three_!" We sprinted for the first window and swished its curtain shut.

"What the-" started Will, seeming to suddenly notice the change in lighting. We kept going and yanked the final curtain shut, effectively throwing the room into darkness. We huddled together, backing into a corner as Charlotte yelped. "Lottie, are you okay?" called Will, his voice moving as he carefully tried to make his way back to her.

"F-fine," she said, her voice very high and shaky. "Where are you?"

"I'm here," he said, his voice sounding closer to hers now. "Eurgh, I just stepped in… something," he said, sounding disgusted. "Are you here?"

"Yes," said Charlotte, obviously petrified.

"Reach out," he told her, and they seemed to find each other, because Charlotte sighed in relief.

"I am sorry about zat," she said, her voice slightly calmer now. "I am a beet afraid of ze dark."

"Don't worry about it," he replied kindly. Behind me, I could hear Kailey all but squealing in delight. I, personally, was wondering where this nice, chivalrous Will came from. Unless something was seriously dangerous, he would have left me alone in a dark room without hesitation. And where did he store the Nice Will after its use was complete? I had a brief mental picture of Will standing in front of a closet full of different skins, and I shuddered. Gross.

"Allie!" said Rose, poking me. "Earth to Allie!"

"What? Sorry!"

"I've only been calling you for the past five minutes."

"I said I was sorry!"

I heard Rose huff and could all but see her rolling her eyes skyward. "_Anyway_, I reckon we should open back up the curtains."

"Okay," Kailey and I agreed, and we shuffled to a candle.

"Er, anyone know the charm to set something on fire?" said Rose after we'd stood there for a moment.

"No…" I said, suddenly feeling a bit foolish.

"I do!" sang Kailey, clearly beaming. "_Incendio_!" The candle lit, and I heard Will and Charlotte start.

"C'mon, we can go wait over there," I heard him say, and the footsteps drew hearer to us. We scurried away, opening curtains and lighting candles until the whole room was lighted again. Will probably would have followed the trail of suspiciously opening curtains, but he was too busy talking to Charlotte, who sighed with relief once the lights had been fully restored.

The rest of their detention, which really was only about twenty five minutes, passed uneventfully. Sitting uncomfortably closely in a corner, Kailey, Rose and I continued brainstorming names for our operation. By the time McGonagall had come back, we still hadn't thought of anything really good, but after we'd slipped out behind them and made our way to an empty corridor to remove the Cloak, I'd had, as Kailey had put it, a brainwave.

"Operation Whole New World," I told them proudly as we folded up the Cloak.

"Excellent," said Rose, grinning. "Operation Whole New World Part 2: accomplished." We managed a sloppy 3-way high five and returned to the Common room, very pleased with ourselves.

**Please review! :) Hate to be that groveling author, but it would mean a lot to me ;)**


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

A few weeks later, three days from Halloween, to be precise, Rose, Kailey, Charlotte and I were sitting in Charms class learning about the Incendio charm.

"Remember, exercise extreme caution when using this charm!" squeaked Professor Flitwick. Kailey tried unsuccessfully to hide a yawn behind her hands, gave up, and started braiding a piece of Charlotte's hair. Charlotte was busy filling the margins of her notes with inky swirls and curlicues that suspiciously resembled W's and L's. Both of the girls had already learned the charm at their respective schools.

"You may try the charm on your own now," announced Flitwick. "Remember, you may only burn the piece of specially reinforced parchment that I will give to you. Yell if something else catches fire." At a flick of his wand, a dozen pieces of parchment zoomed toward the students, one landing in front of each set of partners. Rose and I spent the rest of class trying to set the parchment on fire, but like most of our class excepting the foreign students, we failed miserably. The best Rose got were a few tiny curls of smoke, which frustrated her to no end seeing as she caught on quickly in Charms.

"I _hate_ this charm!" she shrilled at the end of class, shoving her books into her satchel fiercely. By this point, her face was set in a deep scowl, Charlotte's parchment margins were completely filled with her doodles, and Kailey had put about a dozen braids into Charlotte's hair.

"Welcome to my life," I muttered, holding back a chuckle.

Rose either didn't hear or pretended not to. "Allie, will you come with me to ask Flitwick if we can borrow a piece of that parchment to practice on?"

I groaned. "Why not Charlotte or Kailey?"

"'Cause they can actually do the charm, oh brilliant one," she replied drily.

I stuck my tongue out at her. "Fine." Grabbing our bags and telling the other two that we'd see them at lunch, we approached Flitwick. He agreed easily; I suspected he would agree to anything from his star pupil Rose. In fact, he even told us the location of an empty classroom that we could use. After thanking him and taking the parchment, we left to meet Charlotte and Kailey at lunch.

That afternoon after classes found us in Flitwick's suggested empty classroom, practicing the charm in turns.

"Incendio!" I cried. The paper didn't do anything. I sighed. "Your turn."

"Incendio!" A corner began to smolder, smoke curling up from it, but it died down quickly.

"You almost got it!" I exclaimed, half excited, half jealous.

"Yeah," said Rose, staring at the paper as if she could make it catch fire through sheer will.

"Incendio!" Still nothing.  
"Incendio!" The paper smoked again.

"Incendio!" I managed a little smoke.

"Nice!" said Rose, flashing me a smile.

"Thanks." I grinned back.

"Incendio- Whoa!" Kailey had come barreling into the room and run right into Rose, knocking her aim aside. I screamed and dropped my wand as my robes caught fire.

"Oh my God!" screeched Rose, running to try to put it out by slapping it with a book, which only fanned the flames and made the book catch fire. She cursed loudly, dropped the book, and tried to use her hands to beat the fire out. My panicked mind couldn't think of the charm that I had glimpsed somewhere that would produce water… I cried out as the flames actually began to burn me, and Kailey screamed, "Stop, drop, and roll!"

"What?" yelled Rose, still trying to beat out the flames. Her eyes were watering, too, and I knew it had to be burning her hands. The fire was spreading quickly; my entire upper arm was terrifyingly alight.

Instead of answering, Kailey knocked us both over and bellowed, "ROLL!" The pain in my arm was unbearable. I obeyed her words on instinct, bumping painfully over Rose and only stopping when my head banged into a desk, making my vision go dark for a moment. My arm still burned terribly, but the fire was out. I began to cry softly.

"Allie!" cried Rose, picking herself up and crawling to me. "Allie, are you okay?"

I shook my head. "My arm," I gasped, tears streaming down my cheeks. She reached out and gently pulled my charred robes off, Kailey joining her. I stifled a scream as they peeled the fabric off of my arm. I had never felt pain so excruciating before.

"G-go get Madam Pomfrey," said Rose to Kailey, paling as she saw my arm. Kailey nodded and sprinted out the door.

I couldn't stop crying, but I managed to get out, "Rose, your hands." They were red and blistering angrily, and I wondered how bad my arm must look if just her hands were that bad.

I made to turn my head to see, but Rose said, "Don't. It-it's not going to make you feel any b-better." I obeyed, closing my eyes and trying to block out the pain that was making every nerve in my arm scream for mercy.

A few agonizing minutes later, Kailey and Madam Pomfrey came running in. The Matron took one look at me and whisked out her wand, conjuring up a stretcher. They lifted me onto it carefully and levitated it.

"Here, child," said Madam Pomfrey, holding out a small vial of cloudy white liquid. "This will relieve the pain." I nodded gratefully and allowed her to tip it into my mouth. My eyes began to droop, my mind going fuzzy, and I realized that it was a sleeping potion, but I didn't care, because it meant the pain would go away…

_**Kailey's POV**_

As Madam Pomfrey brought Allie into the Hospital Wing, guilt gnawed mercilessly at my insides. I had managed to injure two of my friends in the space of ten minutes: Allie was lying unconscious on a stretcher and Rose was holding back tears because of her hands. Way to go, me.

Madam Pomfrey instructed me, "Go to that cupboard and get the blue bottle on the second shelf." I obeyed, returning with it. "Help your friend put that on her hands." I sat down on the edge of Rose's bed. She sat up obligingly and allowed me to apply the sticky balm to her hands. She hissed in pain as I tried to rub it in, and I winced.

"Sorry!"

"No, it's fine," she said, blinking away tears. "I, er, think it's supposed to do that." After a few minutes, sure enough, she stopped cringing and sighed in relief. "Much better."

"That's enough," said Madam Pomfrey from behind me. "Now I'm going to wrap her hands; you watch your friend for me." She whipped out a roll of gauze from her pocket (how did it even fit in there?) and quickly set to bandaging Rose's hands. I turned to watch over Allie.

Her arm had been wrapped thickly with the same gauze that was being used on Rose, and with the burns covered, she didn't look so bad. But her face was still blackened from the smoke and tear tracks ran down her cheeks. I felt the awful guilt coming back and had to look away. I instead watched as the roll of gauze wound around and around Rose's hands, getting smaller with each rotation until Rose looked as if she had been mummified from the wrists down. Satisfied, Madam Pomfrey warned her not to upset the wrapping and moved back to Allie, magically cleansing her face of soot and tears.

Just when I thought I might go insane from the silence, Allie's brother Will burst through the door, tailed closely by Charlotte, James, Hugo, and Dimitri.

"What's happened?" Will demanded. "McGonagall told me Allie's in here…" He caught sight of his sister. "Oh, Merlin…"

"Ah ah ah!" said Madam Pomfrey, hurrying to block the crowd. "Five visitors at a time, and Miss Hoskin counts as the first!" They all looked around at each other, some heated whispers went around sounding like "She's my sister!" and "Only cousins!" and "My girlfriend!", and finally James left, scowling at Madam Pomfrey, who either didn't notice or didn't care. The rest of them crowded around Allie and Rose's neighboring beds.

"Rosie, are you okay?" asked Hugo, his round, freckled face creased with worry.

Rose smiled. "I'm fine. My hands got a bit burned, but Kailey and Madam Pomfrey fixed them right up." She held up her bandaged hands. "She says I'll be completely healed by tomorrow or the day after." Actually, I'd heard Madam Pomfrey tell her it should take less than a week.

"Okay," said Hugo, obviously relieved. "Uncle Harry said he's sent a letter to Mum and Dad… you know them; they're probably going nuts right now, calling up every contact they've got at St. Mungo's..."

Rose groaned, chuckling. "Would you do me a favor and write them and tell them I'm fine? Tell them I can't write it myself because my hands are bandaged, but… y'know, make it sound like it's not a big deal."

Hugo nodded. "Be back in a bit." He gave Rose a gentle hug and left. The door had barely closed behind him before James hurried in, nearly slamming his face into the door in his haste.

"Are you okay, Rose?"

She grinned ruefully at his antics. "Your concern is touching. Yeah, I'm fine. Allie's the one who actually got hurt."

"How is she?" His face was pinched with worry, and although I didn't see much other resemblance between the two, James's expression reminded me of Hugo's not five minutes ago.

Madam Pomfrey turned around from where she had been tending to Allie. "Really, now, this is a _Hospital_ Wing! I am trying to heal your friend here, and if you can't keep quiet, then you can keep out!" Rose and James, looking rather sheepish, shut up quickly. "Thank you!" She returned to Allie.

"So what exactly 'appened?" asked Charlotte, keeping her voice down to barely more than a whisper.

"Well, Allie and I were practicing the Incendio charm in an empty classroom- Flitwick said we could use it, of course-" she began.

"And I came charging in like an idiot and knocked Rose's arm to the side and Allie caught fire," I finished, staring at my lap. "It was all my fault."

Rose nudged me hard with her knee. "It was _nobody's_ fault. It was an accident, and no one blames you." I didn't answer, just kept studying the worn spots on my skirt so that no one would see the tears starting to form in my eyes.

Charlotte, seeming to sense that I didn't want any more attention, said, "Rose, 'ow bad are your hands?"

"Oh, they're really not that bad. I only-" Just then, Allie started mumbling softly, and her eyes slowly opened. Will, who had been watching her silently, moved to her bedside so fast it looked like he had Apparated, nearly barreling into Madam Pomfrey.

"Allie, how are you feeling?" he asked her, his voice sounding extremely concerned.

"Fine," she said, smiling weakly, but she was clearly in pain.

"Don't give me that crap," he said, giving her a pointed look.

"Really! I'm alright." He glared. "Okay, it still hurts a little, but it's not that bad." Seeing that that was the most he was going to get out of her, he allowed Madam Pomfrey to fuss over her for a few minutes, looking thoroughly relieved when she gave her a Pain-Relieving Potion.

"Will, really, I'm fine," she protested when he tried to coerce Pomfrey into giving her more potion. "Not that I don't appreciate all your concern and all, but if I die from overdosing on Pain-Relieving Potion, you're to blame." That shut him up, and he resigned to kneeling at her bedside.

Allie looked around, able to see beyond Will's body for the first time since she'd woken up. I shrank back so that I was behind Charlotte, rather a feat seeing how Charlotte was nearly half a foot shorter than me, but Allie didn't see me. Instead, her eyes stopped on Dimitri. She blushed a little and smiled. "Hey."

"Hello," he said, smiling back. I swear I'd never seen him smile before he and Allie started dating. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah," she said, breaking off as the clock tower chimed half past five. "Good Merlin, I've been out for an hour?"

"Just about," said Will, clenching his fists in a way Allie couldn't see them. His gaze kept sporadically flicking to Dimitri, and the aforementioned boyfriend was clearly getting a bit nervous, shifting his feet uncomfortably. I would have been nervous too, in his place. We'd all learned by this point that not to cross Will once he's in protective mode.

Allie continued looking around the room, oblivious to the battle of wills (no pun intended) occurring between her brother and her boyfriend. She seemed to notice Rose in the bed next to her for the first time.

"Rose! Are you alright?" She tried to push herself onto her side so she could see Rose properly, but Will held her down easily. She finally gave up, glaring at her brother.

Rose barked out a laugh. "You're one to talk! Am _I_ alright…" She muttered the last bit to herself, giving a signature eye roll.

Allie managed a reproachful grin. "Oh, shut up. I'm only trying to extend friendly concern, and here you are shoving it back in my face. What a great friend."

Snickering, Rose replied, "Why yes, I am a _wonderful_ friend. Ask anyone. Right, Kailey?"

I smiled halfheartedly and tried to hide more behind Charlotte. "Course." It didn't work, of course. Allie's gaze immediately snapped to me.

"Oh Kailey, thank Merlin you're alright," she said, sounding relieved. "You are alright, aren't you?"

I struggled to keep my face normal. Why was she worried about _me_ when _she_ was the one wrapped up like a burrito in a hospital bed? I was an _awful_ friend…"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Good," she said contentedly. "Will, help me sit up a bit, would you?" Her brother rushed to help her, his big hands lifting her up so gently that she didn't even flinch. A tiny surge of jealousy came over me. I wished I had a brother like that. "Thanks."

"You haven't said anything to me," announced James, mock-pouting. Allie rolled her eyes, clearly deciding to pretend that the incident a few weeks ago had never occurred.

"Oh, of course, James. How could I ever possibly forget you?" Her voice dripped sarcasm.

"Gee, I don't know," replied James brightly, smirking. "I'm just so…unforgettable!"

"I'll say," muttered Rose to Charlotte, who giggled.

"Oi!" complained James, turning on them.

"What?" said Rose innocently, her eyes wide. "I was only agreeing with your illustrious statement."

That stumped James. "Ill-what?"

"Oh, never mind," grumbled Rose. I couldn't help but smile at this. She had long ago explained to me that arguing with James is like fighting with a brick wall- the only thing you get out of it is a headache.

"Anyway," he said, turning back to Allie, "you'd better be all healed up before the first Quidditch match of the season. I'd be absolutely _heartbroken_ if you couldn't come." He struck a dramatic pose, clutching at his chest.

"First of all, James, your heart's on the other side," Allie informed him, holding back laughter. James looked down and quickly slid his hand to the left side of his chest. "Second, when's the match, anyway? I don't remember tryouts taking place yet."

"Erm, actually, they're tomorrow," said James sheepishly.

"But you're so bloody cocky that you're _certain_ that you've made the team; after all, how could they not let James Potter on?" finished Rose, snorting at the last bit.

"Why, Rosie, you've stolen the words right out of my mouth," said James, feigning shock and then laughing. "I mean, I've been on the team for the past two years; I don't reckon Short's going to replace me after we won House Cup last year-"

"What position do you play again?" interrupted Allie.

"Keeper," he replied promptly with a proud grin. Allie's eyebrows went up.

"I would've thought you more the Chaser type; y'know, in the middle of the action and all."

Bad move, Allie. We were all treated to a fervent explanation of the fortes of playing Keeper that was so mind-numbing that I even forgot to feel guilty. Finally, Pomfrey put us out of our misery.

"Visiting hours are _over_," she announced, shooing us towards the exit. "Miss Lancaster and Miss Weasley need their rest.

"But Madam Pomfrey, I'm her _sister_!" protested Will. The nurse fixed him with a look that could have made ice flinch.

"No exceptions. Your sister will still be here tomorrow."

"I will?" said Allie from her bed.

"_Yes_," said Pomfrey firmly, and Allie glowered behind her back. I knew Allie hated the Hospital Wing.

"What about the feast?" called Will, halfway out the door. "Will she be out in time for the Halloween feast?"

"We'll see," said Madam Pomfrey, still ushering us out the door, "Depending on whether you will let her rest!" And with that, she slammed the door in our faces.

"Well that was rude," muttered Will.

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